It’s easy to forget that writers are real people. By the time you’ve finished reading the last page of your new favorite novel, you’re far more likely to imagine the author as some sort of demigod than a middle-aged dude who eats TV dinners. But novelists have lives outside their writing, and part of those lives include listening to their favorite bands, whether it be while they’re going for an inspirational run (like Jennifer Egan below, who swears by Lady Gaga) or hanging out with the family.
Check out this list of authors’ favorite music to listen to when they’re not busy whipping up your next favorite book. Who knows, maybe tuning into the sounds of “The Elvis of Afghanistan” like Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini is the inspiration you’ve been searching for to write your own literary masterpiece.
In an interview with KCRW, the author of The Flamethrowers explained why she calls Roxy Music’s first five albums “masterpieces”: “It was just a full glam, art rock, extravaganza and it reminded me of being in my 20’s and I guess choosing life and experience over anything else.”
If that photoshoot of the author sporting sunglasses didn’t convince you that Kushner is the one of the coolest women in the literary world, her love of the ‘70s art rock band definitely should.
2. Jonathan Franzen: The Mekons
You might be tempted to hate anything Franzen professes to love (after all, he’s attempted on multiple occasions to ruin Twitter for the rest of us), but give The Mekons a listen and you’ll be forced to grudgingly admit that you’d listen to a Franzen-curated playlist. “If you feel like … the rest of the world is going over to the dark side, they’re the band for you,” Franzen said of the band in a documentary, Revenge of The Mekons. “And I say that not because they give you hope of ever winning the battle, but they teach you how to be gracious and amusing losers.” Their music is also great to tweet to.
3. George Saunders: John Prine
Saunders had musical aspirations before his literary ones; in high school, he played in a “jazz fusion band” of which he said, “We’d sort of clean it up a little and play little cocktail parties.” Saunders cites Prine as one of the singers of whom the author was “a student of songwriting,” and said of Prine’s “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore,” “My friend and I used to listen to this over and over.”
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