Music for Reading and Studying

There are two kinds of people out there in the world. Some like listening to music while they're reading or studying, whereas others find it distracting. Although it might be a little hard to believe, the first category seeks the quiet rather distracting as well. Here, at Books for What, we've thought of putting together a list (because you know we love lists, and who seriously doesn't? what with all the content that's available online nowadays?) of the best playlists we've found for these two tasks. Some members of our team felt compelled to make the difference between music for reading and music for studying. It appears that some individuals like listening to music while they're reading literature or non-fiction, whereas they find it very hard to focus if they do the same thing while studying for UNI.

Here's a short list of the websites that allow you to create playlists or listen to the ones that others have created ahead of you:


--> YouTube. There's a very low chance that there are still individuals out there who don't know how to make a YouTube playlist. If you find it hard to do it yourself, check out this tutorial on the topic: --> How to Make a YouTube Playlist. You can use these methods to organize your personal videos on your channel or the ones you've found available on this social media network. Tip: some of the songs you'll come across might become unavailable at some point due to copyright infringement. Just to be on the safe side, choose songs or videos that have been published by some of the most well-known recording studios, such as Vevo. You can also check out the official YouTube channels of various artists, as they, of course, hold the rights to their own videos. What's more, you might soon come to the conclusion that pop or rock music may be capable of diverting your attention from what you're supposed to do. If you don't hate classical music, we suggest you search YouTube for these words exactly: "Music for Reading: Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Debussy, Schumann." You'll stumble upon one of the best playlists ever, and the neat thing about it is that the music you'll be listening to is in the public domain. Therefore, there's little to no chance of that video ever going down.

If you're in the mood for classics and want some literature that goes well with this kind of music, we suggest some of the following titles:

--> The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

--> The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

--> Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

--> The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

--> A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

--> Jango. This website is a little different compared to the playlists you might create yourself. We haven't tried it for a while, but we became obsessed with it back in 2012 when we discovered it. The main advantage? It allows you listen to music that's very similar to the one your already like. For example, if you're a great fan of -->Feist, but you don't have the money to buy all the albums or can't be bothered with researching similar artists, Jango can do this automatically just for you. It might require you to sign in with your Twitter or Facebook accounts.

Here're some books that go well with the kind of music created by Feist:

--> The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

--> Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

--> Harry Potter Magical Creatures Coloring Book

--> The Things We Keep: A Novel by Sally Hepworth

--> The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

--> 8tracks. 8tracks is yet another website you might want to consider if you're looking for the right music to have while you're studying, reading, or simply chilling. Some people like accompanying the sounds with RainyMood, a web app that'll let you listen to the rain from the comfort of your own dry and cozy home. 

--> Another website we've recently come across is Neverending Playlist, of which the main idea is practically the same as the one of Jango. StereoDose is yet another web app that can be used to browse through official or user playlists, depending on what you're feeling like. Just stick to calm, relaxing tunes if you want to enjoy your reading experience and get the most of it. The same goes for when you're studying or, at least, trying to study - what's the point in giving yourself the feeling you're studying if the fact of the matter is that you're not?

How about if you prefer supporting new and upcoming artists? There's a simple way to of doing just that, and we're extremely thrilled of having discovered it. It's called Bandcamp and it's packed with some of the most innovative and unique sounds you might have the opportunity to listen to. Sure, you'll have to buy many of them to use them with your smartphone. But since some of them cost just $1, it's worth giving the website a try. Here's an album we liked: beets by Birocratic.

What music do you prefer when you read? Let us know in the comments!

Image credits: Pixabay