A soundtrack with that, madame?

A couple of weeks ago I was introduced to the concept of soundtracking for books. I thought it was a weird idea and at first was pretty dismissive. I mean, I've heard of authors compiling their own inspirational soundtracks for books as they write them, but not for reading?

The sales guy was undeterred and sat me down and gently persuaded me to at least try reading one of the sample books with music/effects etc attached.

Imagine you're watching a film and the kids go down to the haunted basement but there's no music to raise your heartbeat and tell you how stupid this idea is...or the crashing waves during an intense love scene...or the uplifting 'All You Need Is Love' tune from Love Actually during the last scene at the airport- that always, always brings me to tears.

Well, this company (www.booktrack.com) is introducing the world to the concept of enhancing the reading experience by adding a soundtrack as you read. What's more, authors can upload some or all of their books and add their own soundtrack (or pay to have someone else do it).

Game for anything I had a go myself adding music, sound effects and ambience to part of a chapter in my upcoming Love Cats Novella 'Baby, It's Hot Outside'... (I went a bit over the top, playing with it just to see what you could actually achieve) and I've got it here for you to have a read and listen to see what you think about reading along to a soundtrack...

Oh, and it's an exclusive sneak preview to the novella- out on December 1st in the lovecats boxset. (Note: the cover I used for this is from their gallery and not the 'real' cover for the book!)

Why not have a look and a listen...you'll need to switch your volume up a bit ;-)

Baby It's Hot Outside

What do you think? Does a soundtrack enhance your reading experience or take away from it? 

Soundtrack For A Book

Do you ever find the books that you read have a soundtrack in your head? 

It doesn't happen for me with every book, but sometimes the author mentions a certain band or song a few times and I start humming it in my mind even when I'm not reading. Or I'm listening to a new song or album when I read the book and the two become linked in my mind.  

It happens to me when I write books as well. I always make a playlist for a new book I'm writing, but the song that comes to embody that book sometimes surprises me. 

When I wrote my rom-com Cover Story, I played the soundtrack to The Blues Brothers over and over. And over. The tone really suited the story, but the main track I played was their version of The Peter Gunn Theme. To me, this is Tobi Fletcher as she's searching for the culprit of the gnomicides - determined and a bit ridiculous. Here, let me show you:

There were two romance themes. The first was Muse's version of Can't Take My Eyes Off You. Any version of this song would have worked, but this version has an irreverence (wait for the chorus) sitting right beside the sensual romance of it. (In fact, I even had my heroine's sister tell her that the hero couldn't take his eyes off her!)

The second romance theme was Pearl Jam's version of Soldier of Love. This song is so perfect about how Simon feels about Tobi:

I also played a bit of ABBA for the perky tone and sense of fun. If you've read the book, you'll know one of the characters, Jazlyn, plays ABBA pretty much all day, so the soundtrack made its way onto the page. (I have a feeling Michelle Douglas will appreciate this one being here!)

Another song that has the sense of fun is Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love. I played this one a lot too.

What I'd love to know is: when you're reading a book, do you ever associate a song with what you're reading? Maybe something the author actually wrote on the page, or perhaps a song that just seemed perfect for the story? Or is there a song that you've always thought would make a great book? And besides these questions, I'd love to hear what you think of Cover Story's playlist! :)


 

What's Your Favourite Song?

For each book I write, I make a soundtrack. It helps me set the tone in my head, and to 'feel' the book as I write it. And I never use a song on more than one soundtrack.

Which, of course, leaves me with a problem - as I write more books I'm running out of songs!

Luckily, Josh Groban has released a newish album so I'll take a couple of songs from that. (I blogged about going to his recent concert here, and posted a couple of videos of his songs.) 

And after watching The Voice Australia, I've fallen a little bit in love with Ricky Martin (oh, okay, a big bit in love with him) and bought some of his songs, which I'll also use. And maybe a couple of songs from contestants, like this one:



And an old favourite, Muse, has a newish album and there are a couple of songs there I haven't used before. Here's a Muse song I used for Million-Dollar Amnesia Scandal. It was perfect.



But that's about it. So I'm asking for suggestions. What's your favourite song? I'm after love songs, break-up songs, lonely songs, I feel on top of the world songs, songs in foreign languages, classical music - any song that really touches you.

Thanks in advance!