I Have Multisensory Processing & I Love It
Music and Books!
Left: “Language of the Spirit” (Available), Right: “Better With Books” (Unavailable)
Listening to Music and Reading at the Same Time - A Super Power
A study by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics found roughly 30% of people are able to listen to music and read at the same time without experiencing any interference. Lucky me! I happen to be one of the 30 percenters!
Another study, published in the journal Psychological Science, found that people who are good at multitasking tend to have more gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is a brain region involved in attention and cognitive control. Sounds fancy and not so simple!
There isn’t really a universally accepted term for this unique, super power but among the terms used are: multisensory processing or divided attention. Multisensory processing is the ability to ingest and integrate information from multiple senses, such as sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. Divided attention is the ability to focus on two or more tasks at the same time (also famously known as ‘multitasking’).
I have mentioned over the years how I obsessively pair one particular album with any book I read. In doing so, I am subscribing to the theory that neurons firing together, wire together. Without fail, I can hear a song from an albumn I paired with a book 3 years ago and it’ll throw me right into the book in various plot points. I firmly believe the music/book pairings help me in maintaining very good recall for the many books I read each year. Generally speaking, I’ve always listened to music while doing anything, but it wasn’t until 2017 that I started actually keeping track of book/album pairings in a spreadsheet that is incontrivertable evidence of my nerdiness… Here’s proof! (A shot of some of the latest):
Not so professional shot of some of my latest pairings documented on my Google Sheet
What Makes Listening to Something and Reading at the Same Time Possible?
There are a few reasons why some people are able to listen to music and read at the same time while others remain unable.
The first reason is that from a processing standpoint, the two activities engage different parts of the brain. Reading is primarily processed in the left hemisphere of the brain, while music is processed in both hemispheres. This means it is possible to focus on one task while still processing the other task at a subconscious level.
Another reason is that people who are good at multitasking have developed strategies for filtering out distractions. For example, they may focus on the rhythm of the music rather than the lyrics, or they may simply ignore the music altogether. I find this to be very true in my case. As I pick out an album for a book, I oftentimes will run through it a couple of times first without reading to get myself familiar with the lyrics. When I then decide to officially start turning pages while playing the album, my brain is not focusing on the uniqueness of hearing the lyrics the first time, I can focus on the words published on the page.
Finally, experience also plays a role. People who frequently listen to music while reading may become better at filtering out the music and focusing on the text. As I mentioned above, I consider myself a relatively experienced nerd in this space. Lots of practice. Even just going back to 2017 when I started documenting my pairings, that would account for almost 6 years of pairing 50+ books per year with an album.
If Forced to Pick Today, Here Are My Top 5 Pairings So Far
As with any lists, this is a point in time (Tuesday, October 3 of 2023) and I reserve the right to shift the list in any manner in the future :-). My spreadsheet currently has 271 pairings on it so to pick 5 is very unfair but it’s a fun exercise to try. These are not numbered because listing only 5 was tough enough… ranking them might be impossible.
“The Shining” by Stephen King paired with the “Meliora” ablum by Ghost
“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline paired with “Chronicles” by Rush
“We Begin at the End” by Chris Whitaker paired with “A War with Everything” by The Glorious Sons
“A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles paired with “Nothing Happens” by Wallows
“The Storied Life of AJ Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin paird with “Plans” by Deathcab for Cutie
Honorable Mentions:
“American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis paired with “Kick” by INXS
“Lessons in Chemistry” by Barbara Garmus paired with “Midnights” by Taylor Swift