Like many other readers, I am also an avid Swiftie. I love seeing bookish posts that encapsulate how people relate certain Taylor songs/albums/eras to certain books, so I thought I would share some of my Taylor Swift/book correlations, one album at a time. These were all comparisons from my own mind, but as I have seen many of these posts throughout the years, it is possible I subconsciously thought of someone else’s comparison (fully accidentally, of course). Rather than try to capture the vibe of the album as a whole, I picked three songs from each and made bookish comparisons to those. Safe to say there will be some spoilers in this post to make my points, so proceed with caution! Let’s get into book recommendations based on Lover :)
Welcome to the lover girl era! This album transports me to my first semester of college, as it came out right when I was starting out. I commuted around 35 minutes to class each way, so I got my listens out of this album on a daily basis. Death By A Thousand Cuts was highly relatable at the time (unfortunately), so it puts me mentally on I-680 in my 2014 Chevy Cruze. Coming up with these comparisons brought me back to a transitional period of my life, and I loved revisiting the album and finding what I relate to now, almost 6 years later.
I want to start with what I believe is the most underrated song on Lover, It’s Nice to Have a Friend. I adore that this song feels like something that happens in real life: people find friendship in each other before finding love in that same relationship, but the friendship never goes away. This makes me think of Charlie and Nick from Heartstopper by Alice Oseman I have very little experience with graphic novels, but I absolutely adore the Heartstopper series. In the first graphic novel, high school student Charlie forms an unlikely friendship with a rugby player at his school, Nick. Their friendship starts when Nick stands up for Charlie when he is getting bullied for his sexuality, and they eventually begin hanging out after school in a way that is reminiscent of “Wanna hang out? ‘Yeah. sounds like fun.’” As Nick and Charlie get closer, Nick realizes he may have romantic feelings for Charlie, even though he has always thought of himself as straight. The second verse of Taylor’s song depicts two friends hanging out, ending the verse with the lyric “something gave you the nerve to touch my hand.” While not quite the same, this reminds me of a scene in the novel where Nick contemplates holding Charlie’s hand as he realizes his feelings for him. By the end of the song, the friends are fully lovers, which is a similar arc to what Charlie and Nick experience, as the novel ends with Charlie and Nick’s friendship leading to a kiss. It is nice to have a friend, indeed.
I went with the most basic comparison that popped into my head London Boy: Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. Complete transparency, I fully picked this comparison because Boyfriend Material is about British boyfriends and London Boy is about a British boyfriend. There can be broad comparisons made between Taylor and one of the main characters, Luc, as they are both in the public eye. Taylor for her musical career, and Luc because he is the son of a famous musician. Bookfriend Material depicts the cutest fake dating relationship between Luc and his love interest, Oliver, full of moments that share the same energy as walking Camden Market in the afternoon, high tea, and watching rugby. The fake dating is done to improve Luc’s image, though it eventually becomes real. As the lyrics say, all of the rumors about Luc and Oliver end up being true. I fancy you, Oliver and Luc!
Finally, I want to discuss The Man and compare it to Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. This song is a feminist power anthem, and this book is an example of the feminism of the past and the work of powerful women that has got us to where we are today. The song explains the inequalities of how women are viewed and treated compared to men, while the book exemplifies this as the main character, Elizabeth works in the mail dominated field of chemistry in the 1960s. Much of Elizabeth’s work is not credited to her due to her gender, which encapsulates this lyric of The Man perfectly: “they’d say I hustled, put in the work / they wouldn’t shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve.” Elizabeth finds herself pregnant when her partner, Calvin, unexpectedly dies. This leaves her an unwed mother, which gets her fired from her job at the time, even though she is a phenomenal employee. I fear that if Elizabeth was a man, having a child out of wedlock could be “separated from [her] good ideas and power moves.” Elizabeth’s entire professional career is the perfect example of “I’m so sick of running as fast as I can, wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man” because you and I both know that if Elizabeth was aa male scientist in the 1960s, her treatment would have been a lot different. Just like Taylor and her success, Elizabeth faces this inequality in stride, becoming the host of a popular cooking show Supper at Six where she combines cooking lessons with lessons in chemistry (pun fully intended).
I just love this album. Though it is not my favorite of Taylor’s works, she wears the pop princess badge well. The songs of this album veer back and forth between fun and emotional, with many being both at the same time. Though I had such a good time reminiscing on this album, I am excited to five into the lyricism of folklore and evermore, which contain my top 3 absolute favorite Taylor Swift songs.
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