Have you ever matched a book with an album? So the music becomes part of the world of the book

yes, lord of the rings with Stanley Road by Paul Weller. Had it on loop when I read it for the first time. Funnily tho, I can read the book without hearing the music, but when I hear the music, i see images from the book.

Vulgar

Re synaesthesia, also fascinated by this, did
get The Man Who Tasted Shapes from the library after seeing a documentary about it, might have been a BBC One Life one, don't think I finished it so will look it out again and also the 2 fiction ones mentioned sound interesting.

ohfuschia - Gabriel is a lovely name

Also possibly a bit off topic here, but the synaesthesia reference caught my eye. The main character in Clare Morrall's 'Astonishing Splashes of Colour' has the condition - anyone else read that? Quite an interesting book, but I'm afraid I did want to shake the heroine quite hard on occasion, and as I took it on holiday with me, it didn't make for a very jolly, relaxed read...

Thanks for your good wishes, Vulgar, remains to be seen how far I will get with 'Lazy Calm' and 'Fluffy Tufts' before I need the hard drugs but who knows? Already know he's a boy so can't go with your suggestions I'm afraid , and though I do love the track 'Ivo' he's most likely a Gabriel, in part because of another song I haven't been able to get out of my head for the past few months. Funny how much music permeates your life - for years I've thought of how I'd have the Cocteau Twins at labour and now here I am with the bag packed - arrgh.

Sorry to go off topic, did have a scan of my shelves but only the obvious things came up like the jazz soundtrack that seems to go with The Great Gatsby and On the Road - am convinced there are more somewhere in my brain though. Enjoying everyone's suggestions

For me, The Stand will always make me think of Don't fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult, because of the tv film

Agree with LOTR, that it was a bit obvious

I'm off to think of any others

Humphrey - i sooo agree with you about Lord of the rings. It could be a lot more atmoshperic if they used Brian Eno or Cocteau Twins stylee stuff or the stuff you suggest.

Ohfuschia- I am hoping you will have a lovely birth and give your baby a name off the album "Treasure" as a result.

What would you favourite be ?

I think i like "Otterley" -their spelling or Beatrix. -both these are my favourite tracks.

i am LOVING this thread - long many it continue!

Very interesting thread!
I cannot listen to music while I read, so don't have any.
When I was younger I would have... but cannot remember anything
Though "The Stand' is forever linked with football for me... I read it same summer as Italia '90

Ooh yes. The Amber Spyglass (and subsequently, The Subtle Knife, but not Northern Lights) are inextricably linked in my mind with Up by R.E.M.

I think it was more of a coincidence that I bought that album and that book around the same time, but some of the lyrics are vaguely relevant, e.g. reference to consulting the i-ching, and a line "Open the window and lift into a dream" but every time I hear a song from the album I am there in the HDM world

Feel the same about the Cocteau Twins - can transport you totally, have my labour bag packed (due Monday) and they are the only CD's I've got in case the MP3 player doesn't work. Don't know how transportive their powers are but worth a try [hopeful emoticon].

I always think of Far From The Madding Crowd with U2's The Joshua Tree but I guess that's just because of the time I was reading it as they're not natural companions

Will have a scan of my shelves when my head is clearer and maybe some others will come to mind.

I can't ever hear Depeche Mode's Black Celebration album without thinking about Virginia Andrews Flowers in the Attic - especially the song that starts 'Here in this house, where it all happens....' for the life of me now cannot remember the name of the song!

Yes. I remember reading loads of Armistead Maupin novels and imagining Steely Dan playing a soundtrack to it.

retiredgoth2. I think i had many similiar experiences to you around 1986

The Cocteau Twins always make me see colours and "landscapes". Maybe unsurprising when you listen to this type of music but i can recall so much by listening to their stuff. much the same way smells conjure up feelings almost unconciously.

....what a splendid post.

Yes, come to think of it there are some that are very much linked.

...notably Orwell's letters and journalism (his best stuff. Miles better than all the novels except, perhaps, Coming Up for Air) which I read in the early hours of the morning accompanied by Born Sandy Devotional by The Triffids.

This would have been about 1986ish, and I fear that a controlled substance mentioned earlier in the thread may not have been unconnected with my enjoyment...

(I seem to recall an hour or two admiring a patch of wallpaper, too...)

...at a similar time I tried reading Gogol's Dead Souls whilst listening to the Joy Division song named after it. It didn't work, as (a) I was usually overcome by the need to play air guitar in time to the music and (b) the book is shite.

....I'm also surprised and pleased to see a reference to Dead Can Dance. I'd forgotten them.

Unusually, in a thread where obscure 80s goth/indie bands are mentioned I am not going to bore the world by bragging that I saw them live 9 times in 1938.

I would do if I had, though......

(sad git emoticon)

shona - i don't think you have lowered the tone. Rememberr that these connections are not something contrived but something that we "feel" so your connection is just as valid.

Or am I talking shite?

Oh. Posted before I read the thread. I fear I have lowered the literary/musical tone several notches

Yes. Jilly Cooper's romance novels with T'Pau's Bridge of Spies and Bros's Push. I had them taped onto either side of a blank cassette and constantly re-read the books/listened to the tape during the summer of 1988.

Such was my youth.

I always link Mervin Peake's Gormanghast to that dance track of monks singing that came out around 1990 . . can't remember what it was called . . maybe Enigma???? but it really matched the ethereal mood of the book for me.

Stevie Wonder's "He's Mister know it all" always reminds me of reading 1984 in the garden. Doesn't really go with the book but i am immediately transported back to a hot summer when I was about 12/13.

Joan Armatrading's "Love and affection" reminds me of one of her lesser known books "Rule Brittania" too. i re-read it recently and was immediaitely transported back in time. I could have told you in minutie what i was feeling in my life back then.

It is always a "feeling" more than a memory that I experience.

I believe I am mildly synesthesic. when I was studying graphics I remember a number of us talking about what colours days of the week were and that we saw numbers in patterns and steps.

I think the condition may be commoner than we think. I know my son sees names and numbers in colours as he has told me from a young age.

Thank you Humphrey for such a fascinating thread. I hope it continues (although I am off to bed in a minute) i hope for lots more fascinating posts.

Thanks - may give it a go.

Oh I've just thought of another one: I have no idea why but "Tess Of The D'Urbervilles' and 'Sheila Take A Bow' by The Smiths are forever linked in my mind. I think perhaps it's the lyrics - 'how can someone so young sing words so sad?' that connected with the theme.

I love Mervyn Peake, for me the Gormenghast trilogy has fantastical elements but a basis in political reality - I don't know if that's why at Alevel (almost 20yrs ago now though!) I was allowed to do an essay on Gormenghast but someone else was refused Lord of the Rings because it was considered that there was nothing to extract from Tolkein. I don't know if that was my tutor's prejudice or specified in the course guidelines and haven't read anything by Tolkein except the Hobbit when I was young, but I thought it was interesting that Peake was 'allowed' on the basis that there was more to it than pure fantasy. (Sorry Tolkein fans, I honestly don't know enough to have an opinion on that). Unfortunately I read Peake at such a heady time in my life that you probably can't trust my opinion as it will always hold a dear place in my heart, though I can say that the first book 'Titus Groan' is generally considered the best and sadly by the end the trilogy suffered a bit due to Peake's debilitating illness. Sorry will stop now

I was reading Whit by Ian Banks a few years ago whilst DH was 'composing' (that's code for writing a three minute wonder) on the piano. The tune really suited the mood of the book and became known thereafter as Whit.

The Cure use a lot of song references. Have never read Peake - is it good?