Reading

Songs dealing with books and the act of reading or those containing literary references

Central theme

• I Could Write A Book
• The Lady And The Tiger - Based on a short story by Frank R. Stockton
• Or So I Have Read
• Read A Book
• Robert Lowell
• The Share A Story Song
• Snapping Turtle - Based on the short story The Man Who Shot Snapping Turtles
• So Crazy For Books
• You're On Fire - "Oh damn, you must've got one of them / Combustible heads / I read an article all about them"

Briefly mentioned

• 3 Chords, 2 Teeth, 1 Eye - "Some Tim Conway joke books"
• Ampersand - "Notes written on the floor", "So now I type away / I miss the summer day alone with nothing left to write"
• A Stranger's Eye - "I picked up the paperback that you put down, skimmed through the introduction", This was exactly the type of thing that I would never read"
• Authenticity Trip - "I'm not Ichabod Crane"
• Bed Bed Bed, Bed Bed Bed Bed Bed - "I read my book"
• Broke In Two - "Then is when I maybe should have wrote it down"
• Celebration - "I read this stuff, but I don't believe it"
• Cells - "The instructions are spelled out in letters—one on every step—in a language that the cell knows how to read"
• Daylight - "When paperbacks and radios tell the tale"
• Dog - "She's a dog who wrote the book of love"
• Exploding Invitation - "She said that all men must read a Jackie Collins"
• Flying V - "It's hard to read"
• Fortnight - "Where did you come from anyway, a book?"
• Gudetama's Busy Days - "And I'm reading your final harangue"
• Hide Away Folk Family - "As the fuse is spelling out these words"
• I Can't Be Sure - "Reading all the books that I owe"
• I Left My Body - "But I don't know if she read the directions"
• I Need Some Lovin' - "With a sign that reads / 'Nobody rides for free'"
• I Should Be Allowed To Think - quotes Ginsberg's "Howl"
• I'm All You Can Think About - "Your attention wanders when you're trying to read"
• I'm Your Boyfriend Now - "I read your book", "I can read it in your heart"
• Kings Of The Cave - "Get a little help from Friday"
• Lazy - "With a great big valise full of books to read"
• Mainstream U.S.A. - "There was a man with a book beside me"
• Money For Dope - "Edna Ferber novel"
• Mountain Flowers - "They are spelling out a message / But are too far away to read"
• My Evil Twin - "With that book of Nostradamus"
• Nanobots - "Sharing comic books"
• No One Knows My Plan - "In the allegory of the people in the cave by the Greek guy"
• Pet Name - "At the magazine concession"
• Purple Toupee - "I remember the book depository"
• Renew My Subscription - "...I recognized the words when I read them"
• The Second Longest Night - "Rachel bogged down at The Tragic Muse" (a novel by Henry James)
• She Was A Hotel Detective - "She read that motel directive"
• The Spine Surfs Alone - "So said the rule book"
• Stone Cold Coup D'État - "The words assassinated the book"
• Stomp Box - "Pour the poison in my ear" references Hamlet
• The Poisonousness (Hand Witch) "Like the end of Lord of the Flies"
• Too Tall Girl "With her magazine", "There's no kind of guidebook or catalogue"
• Towson - "...I'll jealously read your blog"
• When It Rains It Snows - "There's a note on the door"
• Withered Hope - "a picture in a book"
• You Don't Like Me - "Woody Harrelson, reading in the bath, Nirvana"

Honorable mention

• Bed, Bed, Bed (Book)
• BOOK - TMBG’s 23rd studio album which is packaged in a book.
• Kids Go!
• The Partly Cloudy Patriot
• Spoiler Alert - Linnell describes writing a book as he drives.
• They Might Be Giants Vs. McSweeney's

See also

• Stories