book associations

[calimac]

sartorias associates books with the circumstances under which she first read them. I don't deal in that kind of association so much - I almost didn't get out of the car to see Mount Rainier for the first time because I was too wrapped up in Lord of Light, but I don't associate the book with that trip - but there are associations with other senses.

I permanently associate the distinctive burnished aroma of late 1960s Ballantine paperbacks with The Lord of the Rings, my first copy of which was from that era and which I spent most of the era with my nose buried in. (If you didn't have the chance to experience that smell at the time, see if you can find one that's been wrapped in plastic for 30 years. Generally it faded over time.)

But I particularly associate books with music I was listening to. Sometimes it's appropriate, sometimes not.

• The Return of the King - Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony (the galloping finale says, Gandalf and Pippin on their way to Minas Tirith)
• Gormenghast - Bruckner symphonies (huge, ornate architectural constructions)
• Orwell's 1984 - Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien (what?)