“Music is the literature of the heart, it commences where speech ends.”– Alphonse de Lamartine

I am a fairly musical person, growing up singing in several choirs, playing the violin and the viola and listening to music on repeat. Back then, literature was not really on my list of favourites. However, looking back now, I realise that I lived in a world full of music connected to literature. Whenever I played the viola or sang a new song I looked at the story the piece wanted to tell, at what message it wanted to convey and what emotions were needed to do so. I now see that I was close-reading those pieces of music to emerge into its world, something I now do while reading books. The connection between literature and music can be found in many different forms, and today I would like to introduce some of them.

Music for literature

Music has become an influential tool for literature, especially with the popularity of social media communities such as BookTok and Bookstagram. Both apps allow users to share their reading experiences, their theories, fanart or other thoughts about books. But one trend that showed an immense increase over the last couple of years is the use and association with music which can be seen on TikTok. The app’s main purpose is to create short edits accompanied by music snippets, which can be quotes, whole paragraphs from books, specific fanart or more. Using special sounds to underline this content can quickly lead to song associations. BookTok spreads trends in this manner and eventually some sounds are bound to certain topics as it is the first thing users associate with it. This can be seen in BookTok hits such as the ACOTAR and Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. The provided links are exemplary TikToks that will give you a broad idea of this phenomenon. The songs used are Bow by Reyn Hartley for A Court of Mist and Fury, Luminary by Joel Sunny for the ACOTAR series, Gesaffelstein by Aleph for Fourth Wing and a viral TikTok sound called “Just a girl harmonising with her ceiling fan” (The videos do contain spoilers!)

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV6yofv

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeVjohSb

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV6Jvep

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV6jqBw/ 

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV68yqc

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV6M8EY/

Music in literature

The second form I chose to look at is music in literature, as I’ve read several books naming real songs or even just using music as a major theme. In this category songs can simply be mentioned in books or the literary world can include whole lists of songs. This makes it easy to look up songs used and listen to them while or before reading without having to interrupt the reading flow by having to guess the song’s melody or rhythm. Another rather popular use of music in literature is as a main plot. Here books about musical storylines are rather popular. Many young adult novels and romances revolve around the main character’s musical development or fulfilling their dreams of becoming musicians or the main love interest is heavily involved in the musical world.

Recommendations from my personal experience are: 

• Songs About A Girl by Chris Russel
• The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
• Whatever Happens (Julie and the Phantoms) by Candace Buford

Literature in music

Have you ever listened to a song and noticed that it was telling a story through the lyrics? Music does not equal noise music or melodies with nice texts but sometimes a single song can feel like reading a whole book. This is done through world and story-building in the form of music, just like authors do for their novels or poems. An interesting example where such storytelling can be seen is Taylor Swift. Generally, the American singer writes about her personal life and feelings which is reflected in the way the songs write emotional stories. Every song tells a story on its own, drawing the listener in, and inviting them to experience the story through her eyes. Here, her song The Great War from her 2022 album Midnights can be seen as a great example, also in connection to Rebecca Ross’ Divine Rivals. In the song, Swift tells the story of an internal conflict, a relationship at stake where the lovers have to fight “the great war” for their eventual happy ending. Through her lyrics, she paints a picture of a whole story. Similar to this is the storyline of Divine Rivals where the protagonists are actually present in a war where they have to overcome obstacles and protect their love. On TikTok, the song and the novel are brought up together quite often as their storylines show similarities. This highlights how closely related literature and music can be. While still seeing a song as music, its lyrics can express the same sentiments and the same depth a written page of a novel could. 

Some song recommendations I circle back to when I want to see this phenomenon are:

• Can’t Catch Me Now by Olivia Rodrigo
• The Prophecy by Taylor Swift
• The Manuscript by Taylor Swift
• Don’t Call Me by Maryjo
• The View Between Villages by Noah Kahan
• Coraline by Måneskin

Literature for music

This form might not be as well spread as the previous three but it is still an important phenomenon I would like to address. When creating a list of things I wanted to talk about I remembered a YouTube channel I watched when I was about 15 years old and discovered Nightcore songs. It belongs to Beth Crowley, an American singer and songwriter who used to upload songs inspired by books she read. Just like fanfiction or TikTok, it was a form of fan participation where she wrote music about the book, inspired by it, or from certain characters’ perspectives to show deeper emotions from the literary pages that might not have come across as well without music. One of her most popular songs was “Warrior”, released in 2013, which is based on Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments Series.

Furthermore, she covers many popular books and series such as To All the Boys I Loved Before (Classic, 2019), ACOTAR (Please Take Me, 2018), Shatter Me (I Scare Myself, 2018) or The Midnight Guardian (The Dark, 2016). Hearing those songs after reading the books is a unique experience as I always catch myself picturing scenes with this music playing in the background or recognising specific references that might not be as obvious to others. Unfortunately, this is a rather niche form of genre so Crowley’s songs cannot be considered to be mainstream. However, Warrior, with the help of the books and her fans has become a kind of unofficial anthem for Cassandra Clare’s book series. I would not say it is music to add to your daily playlists but it is worth looking at her channel and giving songs about books one has read a try. 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA6JBtsrOFRzJ-Bu_GUEp5ll4qrRNfCuM&si=Pzy6pson-vCoIcIw

What are your experiences with music and literature? Do you have any songs you listen to because you feel like they tell a story?

Lisa A.

“There is no friend as loyal as a book”- Ernest Hemingway

Today, on April 23, we celebrate what is known as World Book Day, one of many national and international literature days to appreciate and advertise books and reading. It is a page-turner kind of day, greatly celebrated in the United Kingdom, which is also where I had my first encounter with this rather special day in 2021. I cannot remember ever hearing about something similar throughout my childhood and school years so it was an interesting event to witness. But why did they choose April 23rd as a set date for World Book Day? The most important factor here is that this date has great significance in the literary field as it is the death day of many famous and influential writers such as William Shakespeare or Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 

Fun Fact: Today is not only World Book Day but back in 1995, UNESCO officially attributed the 23rd of April as World Book and Copyright Day.

Back in 2021, I was working with children in the UK through which I had the opportunity to see and participate in many activities for this day. Generally, many activities and events are organised, either on a larger scale by the towns or in smaller settings such as schools. Here, people of all age groups can participate in events such as book donations, readings, and internal school events. 

How can you participate?

• Donate books you no longer need yourself. This allows people to get books they might not be able to afford under normal circumstances.
• Reading Challenges
• Costumes
  • Dress as your favourite book character- either for an event or just for a private picture opportunity. Pinterest offers many great ideas if you do not know where to start.
• Book Swap: exchange your favourite books
• Reading Rocket Competition in schools
  • For every read page, the teacher gets to fill in the rocket and after a set time range, the kids will get a prize if they can fill up the whole thing.
• Book Charades
• Personalised Book Recommendations
  • If a book reminds you of someone or you think they would like it, recommend it with a little list of convincing reasons why it made you think of them. 
• Unconventional Reading Places
  • This is an activity I already participated in and I noticed that many children like this kind of task. Here, you should brainstorm the most unconventional reading places you could find to take a picture in. You must think about whether you’d actually be able to read more than a sentence in this spot. This offers the children a challenge- Prove that you can read in your spot. My proteges back then chose the craziest spots but when we talked about the possibility of them actually going there and reading they started to think differently. Eventually, we ended up reading in the chicken coop, in our rat enclosure, having our own little reading with them and in the backyard hanging from our roll-over bars. Having found these spots, the girls were motivated to get some reading done in their spaces.

As the unconventional reading paces have shown, the purpose of World Book Day is to approach literature interactively so children, but also adults, get involved and do not solely feel like they have the task to read- it aims to make reading fun, something to look forward to. 

Here, in honour of the so-called “Leselust” Oliver Jeffers’ The Incredible Book Eating Boy would be of great recommendation channelling this exact feeling of developing a passion for literature. Henry enjoys books rather much but not in our conventional way of reading them but he prefers eating them, gulping down every book he can get his hands on to become the smartest boy ever. 

In honour of World Book Day, a list of some of my favourite books (Children’s to Young Adult):

• The Scourge of the Dinner Ladies by David Tinkler
• Mr Men and Little Miss Series by Adam and Roger Hargreaves
• Rainbow Magic by Daisy Meadow
• Alice Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
• Famous Five by Enid Blyton
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
• Powerless by Lauren Roberts
• One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
• Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
• Wilder Girls by Rory Power
• Caraval and Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garner
• Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

Did you know that today is World Book Day? Will you participate in any way? What activity would you choose?

Happy World Book Day, let’s bookmark this moment as a chapter to remember!

Lisa A.

“Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”- Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass

In the summer of 2021, I stumbled across my first TikTok from BookTok showing all of the creator’s 5-star ratings of the year. Among them were A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, Throne of Glass and Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood. Half of the video talked about books by Sarah J Maas which intrigued me. While looking at several videos of what her fans call the Maasverse, a video with book quotes finally convinced me to read her Romantasy series ACOTAR, thinking it would be my only project. Back then, I did not know that it would become my favourite book series and that I’d take on a 16+ book commitment. One video introduced a simple name that would change my reading attitude. 

Today, in honour of the 38th birthday of the American writer Sarah Janet Maas, I would like to introduce her most famous book series.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

ACOTAR is an ongoing book series with 4 novels and one novella. The story follows the 19-year-old Feyre Archeron, a huntress and the only provider of her father and two older sisters Nesta and Elain, who live in poverty in the woods close to the magic wall separating the human from the fae world. In her desperation to find food, Feyre goes out to the woods to hunt a deer when she comes across a wolf which she suspects to be a faerie, a species she as well as her family and the other people of the village, hate. When the creature attacks the deer she is about to shoot, Feyre decides to use her ash arrow on the big wolf. A day later, her suspicions about the wolf being a faerie come true when a golden beast tears down her family’s door demanding his payment for the faerie’s death. Feyre is given a choice: die now or come to Prythian, the fae land, and live there with him, her family being spared from further punishments. With this, the youngest Archeron daughter’s adventure through the courts of Prythian and her eventual love story begins. 

Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass is an 8-book finished series following Celaena Sardothien, a professional assassin who got arrested and put into a slave camp for murder after a failed task. After an early release from the prison, she finds herself summoned to the king’s castle to compete for her freedom. If she bests 23 other assassins she wins her freedom back and becomes the king’s personal assassin, if she fails she will be sent back to the camp and be imprisoned for the rest of her life.

If you decide to read Throne of Glass, I recommend looking up the different orders to read in. Another important note, one that makes the series rather special is the possibility of a tandem read of Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. It is an optional way to read both books but I thought it to be a great reading experience.

Crescent City

Bryce Quinlan, a young half-fae half-human woman from Crescent City is what people describe to be the typical party girl, going out, drinking and taking magical drugs while also maintaining her job. Her life takes a drastic turn when one night she returns to her apartment to find her best friend and her pack of wolves dead, killed by a dangerous demon. Two years later Bryce is appointed to help Hunt Athalar, an enslaved fallen angel, to investigate her friend’s murder as a series of similar killings have occurred throughout the city. Quinlan uses this chance to avenge her friends and together with Hunt save the city. 

For many people on BookTok starting one of Maas’ book series is a commitment to the whole Maasverse. Her precise world-building led to many fan theories of connected universes. Her most recent book Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow confirmed those theories by offering a crossover with characters from later ACOTAR novels. So only reading one series, Crescent City, for example, might not be enough to understand the story’s complexity. With this, it becomes a commitment. 

Today, reading Sarah J. Maas has become a bit easier as her publishing dates have decreased with her building a family life, however, until 2018 she published one to two books every year, so keeping up was not an uneasy task.

(Note the age rating for each novel- young adult to adult Romantasy!)

My Favourite Quotes:

• “Don’t feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy” (ACOTAR, p.172)
• “To the stars who listen and the dreams that are answered” (ACOMAF, p. 249)
• “Only you decide what breaks you” (ACOMAF, p.)
• “Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don’t feel anything at all” (ACOTAR, p. 414)
• “Don’t let the hard days win” (ACOMAF, p.178)
• “You could rattle the stars. You could do anything if only you dared. And deep down, you know it too. That’s what scares you most” (ToG, p. 399)
• “We all bear scars,… Mine just happen to be more visible than most” (ToG, p. 305)
• “Names are not important. It’s what lies inside of you that matters” (ToG, p. 277)
• “The world [..] will be saved and remade by dreamers” (EoS, p. 248)
• “Through love, all is possible” (CC1)
• “Then let the world know that my first act of freedom was to help my friends” (CC1, p. 701)
• “My friends are with me and I am not afraid” (CC1, p. 703)
• “Light it up” (CC1, p. 765)
• “This world could be so much more. This world could be free. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want that” (CC2, p. 193)
• “A world where people loved and valued books and learning so much that they were willing to die for them. Can you imagine what such a civilisation was like?” (CC3, p. 564)

ACOTAR- A Court of Thorns and Roses

ACOMAF- A Court of Mist and Fury

ToG- Throne of Glass

EoS- Empire of Storms

CC1- Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood

CC2- Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath

CC3- Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow

Lisa A.

On January 3, 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Growing up in poverty and already having to grieve his parents at the young age of 12, his childhood did not seem to be an easy one. Regardless of this series of unfortunate events Tolkien successfully graduated from Oxford University and secured his employment as a Second Lieutenant in the British Army. 

However, it is not just his biography that makes his persona so important but his literary works that are still immensely popular today. 

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

• Lord of the Rings is a book series most people have probably heard about, if not even read it themselves, or watched the movies. Its trailblazer The Hobbit was originally a children’s book published in 1937, however, the story world grew enormously and a high fantasy world emerged. 

Leaf by Niggle

• This is one of Tolkien’s short stories that is not as well known as the Lord of the Rings franchise. The character Niggle is an artist, however, the part of society he resides in does not appreciate art in any way. Because of this, he only paints for his own pleasure, and he took on the big project of painting a great tree. The work starts with a single leaf and grows around it. Because of his good character, he takes time off his work to help his neighbour, unfortunately, while doing so, he falls ill. Due to this, he is sent on a journey as a gardener to a forest. He discovers that this forest is the one he had painted all along and the tree he sees in real life is the perfected version of his flawed painting. 

Further Recommendations

• The Silmarillion (1977)
• Unfinished Tales (1980)
• Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (1936)
• The Rings of Power (dir. J.A. Bayona, 2022)

Lisa A.