Like I haven't already done that?
Anyway last night I had my weekly writing class and we discussed the Hunger Games (which if you haven't read I highly suggest you close your computer and hurry off to the nearest book store/library and pick up a copy). While I could totally divulge into the merits of the book and how Katniss is totally bad ass. I won't because this is about my reading experience.
I know that the "big" thing in writing these days is to write to music. How many times do you flip to the back of the book and see the "author's playlist" for the novel? I see it all the time. Mostly I've never heard of the stuff and I make my own playlist--which is actually more like one song than a list.
Like I will always associate Fields of Gold with The Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult
and Frou Frou's Let Go will always be Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.
My brain refuses to read in silence. It absolutely cannot stand it and refuses to read with nothing in the air. So I pick one song and put it on repeat for the entirety of the book. I have to be careful because once a song is locked with a book I can't use it to write. Or it takes extreme effort to disassociate the song with the book. So I am extremely careful. Typically I use songs that I enjoy but could never see myself writing to. They are the songs that I would sing along to in the car or listen to to make me feel better.
My pick for the Hunger Games? Well is started out as Pony (It's Okay) by Erin McCarley, who I LOVE LOVE LOVE, but it wasn't working. The song still great, the book to die for, but together it was one hot mess.
This may account for my distaste of the first fifty pages of the book. Then I switched. To the most random song ever. Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. And it clicked. Like everything made sense and I flew through the book on the wings of a mocking jay.......
Anyway.....
Now for those of you who have read the book, no it was not for the long distance love triangle in the making. But the more I go back and listen to this song the more I realize I don't associate it with Katniss and Peeta or Katniss and Gale. Well at sometimes I do, like I can't take one more step towards you, cause all that's waiting is regret Totally a K/P line. But I have grown too strong to ever fall back in your arms for some reason, and no I have not read the second one, this says K/G.
But the bulk of the song, has nothing to do with those pesky little things called boys.
I associate this song with Katniss and the Capital.
Totally weird but it totally works.
"I've learned to live half a live
and now you want me one more time"
Every time, I hear these words I think of Katniss and her will to survive. We discussed in class how Katniss is in survival mode. She's shut down the part of her that dreams or thinks beyond her next meal. Thus the half alive part and then the State which has up to this point left her alone wants something more from her.
I won't reveal what, but it forces Katniss's hand. And it is fabulous, so when I tell you to get your hands on the book, do it.
The point I think I am getting at is how does your reading experience affect your take on a book. I'm curious to go back and read the first part of the book to Jar of Hearts and see if I enjoy it more. Are there books where your reading experience has marred the book?
No comments:
Post a Comment