Selected Excerpts From My Book-Writing Spotify Playlist

Some of the songs I listened to when I wasn’t listening to rain sounds.

Over the past few years, I’ve been working on my first book. That first book was published in June. It’s called I Thought This Was Worth Sharing: Stories and Some Other Stuff About Love and Some Other Stuff. You can check it out here, if you like.

These are just a few of the songs I listened to rather frequently during its development. And you can find the playlist here, if you like. I suggest listening to it on shuffle, for no particular reason other than I like that somewhat exciting feeling of anticipation when you’re wondering what’s going to come next.

THE WORLD AT LARGE — MODEST MOUSE

I’m more of a lyrics than melody or instrumental acumen guy. I’m also an advertising copywriter by day, where a good line can go a very long way. So I gravitate toward them. The ending of this song has one of the best: “I know that startin’ over’s not what life is about / but my thoughts were so loud I couldn’t hear my mouth.”

When I was a sophomore in college I had the worst breakup of my life so far. In the aftermath, I left town for the summer to go intern at a small daily newspaper just outside of Ocean City, Maryland. When I was driving myself out there with a few belongings, this song, which to my knowledge I had never heard, came on my iPod’s “Shuffle All” feature. I did a double-take when I finished…