Top five albums I listen to while reading

A while back I wrote a post talking about setting up for a good reading session, and I mentioned the idea of having a theme song to read to - this got a lot of responses from friends and readers who asked me what kind of CDs I listen to while reading, so to satisfy your curiosity, here you go:

Bookmonkey's top five current albums to listen to while reading

5. Ride the Lightning - Metallica

Or specifically the instrumental tune "Call of Ktulu," which I can listen to exactly 5 times in a row on repeat while I'm walking home (yes, I do read while walking - something that has lead to uncomfortable contact with lamp posts, other people and once an uncomfortably personal contact with a fire hydrant). Usually I keep the song specifically for horror reads.

4. Away We Go: Original Motion PIcture Soundtrack by Alexi Murdoch

This one is really new for me, I've only been listening to it for a few weeks, but I really love all the songs and even though they have lyrics, I don't find that they get in the way of my reading at all - they just comfortably groove with whatever is going on in my book - currently my favourite tune is All My Days.

3. The Neverending Story: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Klaus Doldinger

This soundtrack is really fun, doesn't fill my head with lyrics (which can be distracting while reading), and most importantly reminds me of a story about a kid reading a story, so if I'm listening to it while I'm reading I'm getting all Meta. Favourite track - Swamps of Sadness.

2. Legend: Original Motion picture Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream

I'm actually a pretty big fan of Tangerine Dream, a lot of the music is instrumental, and while I worked at a video store in the late '90s I watched a videocassette of theirs that showed images from the Grand Canyon over and over again because I liked the tunes. My favourite song on the Legend soundtrack is called Cottage - it works very well for reading high fantasy stories.

1. Virtually anything by James Horner

Over the years I've probably purchased at least a dozen James Horner (pictured left) Soundtracks, from Star Trek III, to Legends of the Fall, Aliens and Titanic, I've just really loved what this guy can do with music - here's a quck taste of one of my favourites, the One Last Wish theme from Casper.