Life Soundtracks and Word Truffles

It’s Monday.  Oh wait, not really.  It’s Tuesday.  But it feels like Monday.  I made it to work at an hour that actually resembles on time.  I have work that will allow me to be solitary and quiet in my office today (for which I am grateful due to the faux-Mondayness).  But quiet aside, I wanted to do something to counteract my natural inclination toward grumpiness today and send some positivity out into the world.  Yeah, that thing I said I was moving over here and then haven’t done anything with.

This came to my inbox this morning, and I found it to be inspiring, and a little energizing.

You need a life soundtrack. Has anyone told you that yet?

Yes, I have always felt like this is true.  That life should be a musical, with people bursting into random song just like in Once More With Feeling.  Or background music, like Will Hayes has in Definitely Maybe (one of my all time favorite movies ever).  I’m not sure what my soundtrack would be playing this morning.  Something like a sleepy town waking up maybe–like the score to The Spitfire Grill.  That opening track An Uncertain Future always gets me.

What’s on your personal life soundtrack today?

Something else she says in her post that really resonated with me

Find an author whose words are like truffles for you.

This hits me on two levels–because damn, I would really like some truffles–and pie–for breakfast–because there are some authors whose prose (or poetry, if that’s your bag) just reaches right into your brain and takes up residence.  Whose words fill your mouth exactly like those truffles, something rich and delicious to savor and roll over your tongue.  Laini Taylor and Maggie Stiefvater are boxes of word truffles for me.  I get lost in their prose, to the point that I can’t analyze their work critically.  I’m too busy doing a lazy backstroke in the sunshine (or darkness, in the case of Taylor–I haven’t forgiven her Days of Blood and Starlight yet) of their words.  And Rainer Maria Rilke and A.R. Ammons and e.e. cummings (sometimes) on the poetry front.  I don’t read poetry as often as I used to.  It’s another one of those things I keep meaning to pick up again.

I’m always on the hunt for new word truffle authors.  So share!  Who do you read and savor?

2 thoughts on “Life Soundtracks and Word Truffles

  1. Stephen King’s words are like truffles for me. I don’t normally care for super long books, but in King’s case, I never want them to end. He builds worlds and characters that I can get lost in. And I’m finding that his son, Joe Hill, is following in his father’s footsteps.

    Btw, I’ve watched Once More With Feeling about four times lately. 🙂

  2. That line about the soundtrack (and the implication that it should be happy), was what prompted today’s creation of the For Scruffy Peanuts Dancing Nerf Herders Pandora station. I love A Walk in the Dark Radio, but it’s not for the happy dance.

    I have to confess that (obviously excluding movie theaters and the library) I LOVE MP3 ringtones and living in an age when people’s back pockets randomly burst in random song.

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