Soundtracked Books from the Acoustic Era to the Digital Age: A Century of “Books That Sing” by Justin St. Clair

Soundtracked Books from the Acoustic Era to the Digital Age: A Century of “Books That Sing” is part of the Sound in Urban and Popular Culture series from Routledge. Justin St. Clair has written a well-researched monograph that, while certainly accessible to a general reader with an interest in history and music, seems most well suited for an academic audience within this discipline. St. Clair’s book is informative while also entertaining, encouraging both academic and nonacademic readers to explore this topic. It also embodies the goals of Routledge’s Sound in Urban and Popular Culture series, which is meant to focus on “underexplored sonic issues with urban and popular culture.” As St. Clair delves deeply into the history and development of the soundtracked book, he creates a specific terminology that orients readers in a discussion of the history, development, and future prospects of this genre.

The context and purpose of the book are defined in the introduction, St. Clair inviting readers into a specialized space through which he promises to shepherd them as he considers this heretofore neglected topic of research. He defines the “soundtracked books” genre as “a book (a physical, print publication, or its digital analogue) for which a soundtrack has been produced” (2). The term exists in a variety of contexts, “characterized by a specific kind of hybridity—the visuality of musical sound recordings” (2). He further defines his analysis of soundtracked books as “a kind of media archeology,” contextualizing his research within a body of literature oriented toward providing the “cultural history of an overlooked media form, hiding in plain sight for more than a century” (2). As I read, I was reminded of the music that Carlos Ruiz Zafón composed to accompany his novel The Shadow of the Wind, brief pieces that illuminate key moments in the novel, heightening the drama.

Within the introduction, readers also receive a thorough summary of what lies in store as well as a justification for the book’s publication. St. Clair carefully defines his technical terms, the most important being “schizo temporality,” a concept he coined to mean “split-time synchronicity,” which describes the odd hybridity of this genre. He returns to this concept throughout the book as he analyzes numerous examples concerning the degree to which each soundtracked book shares this troubling characteristic. As St. Clair carefully places his book within a context of work by other scholars and authors, he explains the need for this book within the series. He firmly establishes his expertise in literary studies, which positions him as an authority in this field. Helpful to readers is an outline of the contents, which many will also find entertaining. From the outset, his tone is at times conversational, making the reading more of a pleasure than a task. By the time readers reach chapter 1, they will be fully prepared and highly engaged, ready to begin their journey. In each chapter, the author has chosen a specific time frame in which to discuss not only the genre but also the history and technical features of his examples. He often reminds readers of the problem he identifies and defines in the introduction, that of “schizo temporality.”

Chapter 1, “Playtime Reimagined: The Invention of the Soundtracked Book,” invites readers to a time when the public was discovering record albums around 1917. The primary example of “books that sing” in this opening chapter is the “Bubble Book,” created and distributed by Harper-Columbia. Readers learn that it is with the invention of Bubble Books that the story of soundtracked books begins, along with its flaw of schizo temporality. Chapter 2, “Sounds Exotic: The Columbia Legacy Collection and Our Midcentury Imagination,” covers the 1940s through the 1960s, in which readers encounter a thorough discussion of other early examples from the Columbia Legacy Collection, such as those from Moe Asch and Harry Smith, who produced soundtracked books of folk music. Readers might be interested to discover that Folkways Music, now known as Smithsonian Folkways, was an early contributor to the production of such books. Examples in this chapter highlight the importance of the historical contexts in which soundtracked books were produced, as well as the developments in sound production and publishing that made such new and perhaps exotic formats possible. Chapter 3, “Otherworldly Sounds: Alternative Spiritualities and the Soundtracked Novel,” focuses on a different form of exoticism featuring examples by Michael Nesmith (of Monkees fame), L. Ron Hubbard (Church of Scientology founder), and Ursula K. Le Guin (writer of science fiction). Chapter 4 investigates more modern forms of the soundtracked book, a physical tome paired with a CD-ROM or internet playlist. Readers may recognize the name Kathy Acker and her novel, Pussy, King of the Pirates (1996), or Mark Z. Danielewski’s horror novel, The House of Leaves (2001), for which Danielewski’s sister, Anne, created a playlist that remains accessible to listeners today.

In the book’s afterword, St. Clair closes by explaining that the ever-present problem of schizo temporality eventually brought an end to what promised at first to be a creative addition to the printed book. However, he expresses hope that this time/space problem can be resolved within the context of what he designates a “field of play,” which would allow readers to enjoy a truly interactive experience.

My final assessment is that Soundtracked Books from the Acoustic Era to the Digital Age provides readers with an entertaining and informative historical analysis and encourages them to seek out such books for themselves.

—Nicole Blair, University of Washington Tacoma