Friday, October 15, 2010

Can a song prompt you to read a book?

This post has the possibility of becoming another so-tired-I'm-delirious post, so apologizes ahead of time.

I went to see Jimmy Eat World last night in NYC.  You may be asking yourself "But Alley, you live in Boston and they're coming to your town tonight.  No need to make the trip all the way to NYC" to which I respond "Not only are you correct but I originally had tickets for the show right here in Boston.  And chose to go to the NYC show instead."  Not to go into details but the decision was made based on work schedules for myself and Boyfriend as well as a healthy dose of insanity.  I only went down for the night and I actually checked into my return flight to Boston while I was still in Boston.  Fun how that works out. So my tiredness is due to not sleeping much last night after the show and having to get up bright and early today to make it back to Boston.  And probably some stress because for a good hour Boyfriend and I didn't think we'd make it to the show due to traffic.  As it was we missed the first 30-45 minutes and were almost ready to throw in the towel but A) that was a lot of travel and B) we already had the tickets.  Even one song is better than none.  And Boyfriend and I have seen Jimmy Eat World a stupid number of times so I already pretty much knew how things would go.  I've been a fan of the band since I was about 15 so I've had lots of time to see them perform.

This is a book blog however and as much as I do just want to gush about how much I like seeing these guys and go to stupid lengths to do so, I can keep this about books.  See, Jimmy Eat World has this song called "Goodbye Sky Harbor" off of their Clarity album and this song is based on the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.  Now I didn't know this when the album first came out.  I just knew this was the 16 minute song that closed off the album and that I used to fall asleep to.  It wasn't until years later when I met Boyfriend, also a Jimmy Eat World fan, that he got me the book as a gift before I went to Italy. He knew I wanted some English language books for while I was there and he knew I loved Jimmy Eat World so this seemed perfect. I enjoyed the book, although not enough that I plan on re-reading it anytime soon.

I know plenty of people (myself included) have read books based on movies or maybe even a TV show but I believe this is the first time I've read a book based on a song.  Have any of you ever read a book because of a song you've heard?  Would you read a book if you learned a song you liked was based on it? Are there other songs about books?  I know Zeppelin had some LotR referenced songs but are there any others?