I’m starting a new blog installment purely for my own enjoyment… again. As we all know, I love pairing songs and books together, but I’m running out of books I’ve read that I want to recommend and that go well with a song. So I’m turning to the one thing that will always be abundant: my to-be-read (TBR) list! This way I can stick with my goal not to pressure myself too much with reading this year and also write my favorite type of blog post more often.

What better place to start than with the newest album from my favorite band? I’ve been listening to Green Day’s Saviors on repeat since my solo listening party the day after it came out. And now my obsessive listening will pay off.

“The American Dream Is Killing Me”: Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore

This one is a little self-explanatory, right? The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the most well-known American Dream novel. It is a little sad that the illusion of the American Dream is still intact and ruining lives one hundred years later… but what can you do? *shrugs*

“Look Ma, No Brains!”: Not a Star by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby’s fiction is generally about the lives of mediocre 30-something men who constantly disappoint those around them—which already fits the vibe of this song. However, this specific short story is about a mother who finds out her son was in an “adult film” and has to grapple with how that changes their relationship. It would be even more on the nose if the story were from the son’s perspective, but hey, it’s close enough for me!

“Bobby Sox”: Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

Even though “Bobby Sox” is about bisexuality, I think that pairing it with Lesbian Jesus’s YA novel is fitting. Girls Like Girls is based on Kiyoko’s song of the same name, so I’m assuming it will also deal with young queer love—the beauty and fear and excitement of it all.

“One Eyed Bastard”: Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

The Ninth House duology deals with the corruption of the ivy league, while “One Eyed Bastard” deals with the corruption of power in general. They’ve got the same “ancient secret society of the rich and powerful that is possibly Satanic” idea behind them, ya know?

“Dilemma”: The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

Though this song is about addiction and relapse, I decided to focus more on the line “I’m in trouble and in love again” when choosing a book. The main character in this book agrees to pretend to be straight at school despite the fact that she has never been good at hiding who she is. Both are about returning to harmful habits and the journey to overcoming/understanding these habits.

“1981”: I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution by Craig Marks & Rob Tannenbaum

MTV was launched in 1981, and this song is basically about a girl who “bangs her head like 1981” (e.g., while watching MTV). The undertone of this song is more of an infatuation with the girl who changes BJA’s worldview like “a Cold War in [his] head.” However, this book was too perfect not to link to a song that talks about MTV. Both reminisce about a specific period of time in pop culture, albeit one more academically than the other.  

“Goodnight Adeline”: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Let me be the first to say that I can’t believe I still haven’t read this… Anyway, The StoryGraph describes The Color Purple as “emotional, reflective, sad, and medium-paced,” all of which could be used to describe this song. Both are about feeling alone and broken and how those feelings can be so overwhelming that they take over your life. They’re about the disappointing “knowns” of right now and the ever-volatile “unknowns” of the future.  

“Coma City”: Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong

A city that seems to be going crazy, unmitigated violence, government corruption, conspiracies and terror—these are just a few of the things this song and book have in common. Plus, the line “Dead on arrival under smoky skies” fits the Chloe Gong 1930s Shanghai universe perfectly.

“Corvette Summer”: Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008 by Chris Payne

The main hook of this song is “Get around, I can get around / Fuck it up on my rock ‘n’ roll,” so of course I had to pick a book about music. I suppose I could’ve picked one about punk music, since that’s really what this song is about, but pop punk is often included in the emo genre, so I thought it would work well enough. Specifically the line “Take me to urgent care / Or the record store” made me think of the emo/alternative genre.

“Suzie Chapstick”: The Daydreams by Laura Hankin

The Daydreams is about the reunion of the stars of a 2000s teen show that ended disastrously, which sounds like it will include a lot of complex nostalgia. It pairs well with “Suzie Chapstick” because the song is all about missing someone and the time spent with that person, even if it ended poorly. The song questions if they will ever reunite, whereas the book makes that reunion a certainty.

“Strange Days Are Here to Stay”: A British Girl’s Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak by Laura Taylor Namey

Though this song is about the broader weirdness of our world that seems to be sticking, the sequel to A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow is more about how a specific girl’s present and future look to be “strange.” Flora is about to start university, is grappling with romantic feelings toward her best friend, and is vacationing in Miami in order to avoid her emotions—but none of these things are likely to go away soon.

“Living in the ’20s”: Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

I promise I didn’t just pick this book because it takes place in the 1920s, although that definitely strengthens the connection. This song is all about how we live in “the future” but it’s not at all what we imagined it would be like. Things are different on the surface, but not underneath. Similarly, Vile Bodies is about the darker underside of the shiny “Bright Young Things” generation’s lives. Progress and excess don’t always end well. “Ain’t that a kick in your head?”

“Father to a Son”: Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome

For this song, I didn’t really want to just find a book with a father-son relationship, but instead looked for one with masculine vulnerability. This memoir is described as just that—a look into the life of a Black gay man dealing with addiction, sexuality, complex family dynamics, and all of the other things that come with growing up Black and gay in the United States. For men and boys—and more specifically for Black men and boys—emotional vulnerability is seen as taboo, and I think it’s important to acknowledge the effects this can have on boys growing up.

“Saviors”: 7FATES: CHAKHO, Vol. 1 by BTS/HYBE

If 7FATES: CHAKHO has the same or a similar storyline of the BTS Universe music videos, then this song fits well with it. There’s a kind of last-ditch hope feeling to both of them, a desperation for something to “save us” from the world that seems to be breaking us down. And maybe part of that is coming together with other people, whether they be “saviors,” “believers,” and/or “strangers.”

“Fancy Sauce”: The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe, et al.

“Fancy Sauce” is about how what lives in our minds shapes our current experience, and The Memory Librarian is about how what is erased from our minds can shape our future. And while the former leans into a sort of “my choices don’t really matter in the long run because the world is so fucked up” mindset, the latter is more hopeful in that the whole plot hinges on the main character regaining control of her own mind and life.

Conclusion

And there you have it! My first TBR Playlist. Some songs were surprisingly difficult to pair with books on my TBR, especially ones I kept wanting to pair with books I’ve already read, but this was still a blast and gave me an excuse to listen to Saviors again… even though I didn’t really need one.

Happy reading, and happy listening!

-Ryn PB