Did anyone else have a childhood where the most exciting thing you could possibly do on a weekend or summer day was go to the library? I still remember vividly the feeling of my mom passing a tote bag to me in the back seat of her Honda Pilot and sending me up to the second floor of the Haverford Township Free Library to browse away. Each visit, without fail, I would end up with more books in that tote bag than one elementary schooler could possibly read until I had to return them, but that was my favorite challenge to take on.
Another book-related challenge was the back wall of my elementary school’s library. It was floor-to-ceiling shelves of the “big kid books” only the fourth and fifth graders could read. I had gotten bored of beginner chapter books in second grade, so I would go the closest to the back wall I could and decide which books to check out first when I finally hit fourth grade. And God, was it worth it. I devoured those shelves in the two years I had with them, selecting books solely based on their covers and which ones were my favorite color (pink).
My idea of friendship was formed by hearing the echoes of my mom’s friends laughing once a month at their book club gatherings, even though I swore they never actually talked about books. My Nancy Drew audiobooks would lull me to sleep, and one of my favorite gifts ever was an iPad Mini because I could read in my bed at night and hide it under my pillow easily if my parents came to make sure I was asleep.
However, since this is WVAU, I should mention that my other favorite gift was a pink iPod shuffle. That was where I first discovered the power of music, even if I was using it to play Taylor Swift’s “Long Live” or One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” on repeat. There was nothing like hearing a song, begging my dad for the CD or $0.99 for the iTunes single, and knowing that my life had been changed in a small way. And don’t even get me started on concerts. I have been to too many to count, and my happy place will always be in a crowded music venue in the dark with a bunch of strangers.
One of my core elementary school memories is learning about making connections. One of my biggest strengths was “book-to-book connections,” where we would have to draw similarities between whatever story we were reading and another one we had read that year. If you look at my Spotify account (@kbbongiovanni), you’ll see that I never stopped doing this. What used to be connecting one excerpt from our Houghton Mifflin Reading anthologies to another has turned into making extensive playlists based on whatever book I’m reading. I don’t do it for every book, but there’s some where I can hear the music calling to me from the pages.
I’ve been doing this for a while and want to share the feeling it creates with anyone who might want to listen. I also want to make my own little book club to channel the book club community that I grew up surrounded by but with a little extra twist. So, every other week, I’ll do a little book review of a recent read or a well-loved favorite, but through the lens of the music it connects to. I’ll let you know what book it will be in the preceding article, so you can either read along with me and hear my tunes when you’re done, wait until after each article to read the book, or let this column be the only reading you do. It’s up to you!
Our first read will be “The Royal We” by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. It’s basically Prince William and Kate fanfiction but a million times better, and it means the absolute world to me. There’s a good chance I’ve read it more than anyone ever has or should, so trust that the accompanying tunes will be selected thoughtfully. I hope you’ll enjoy it, and welcome to Tunes-A-Million!
