Taylor Swift’s 1989 was released almost a year ago now, but its popularity hasn’t diminished since last October. From music videos with hundreds of millions of views, to her sold out 1989 World Tour, Taylor Swift is one of the most well-loved artists of all time. And because we’ve listened to 1989 more times than we can count, here are all the songs from the chart-topping album in book form, because it doesn’t get any better than Taylor Swift as a book, does it?
“Welcome to New York” = The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when, The New York Times remarked, “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s that resonates with the power of myth. A novel of lyrical beauty yet brutal realism, of magic, romance, and mysticism, The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
When we first dropped our bags on apartment floors
Took our broken hearts, put them in a drawer
Everybody here was someone else before
And you can want who you want.
“Blank Space” = The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Following a terrible fight with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her family. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as “the radio people,” Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena.
For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics–and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly’s life, affecting all the people Holly loves–even the ones who are not yet born.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
Nice to meet you, where you been?
I could show you incredible things
Magic, madness, heaven, sin
Saw you there and I thought
Oh my God, look at that face
You look like my next mistake.
“Style” = A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
Lily Dane has returned to Seaview, Rhode Island, where her family has summered for generations. It’s an escape not only from New York’s social scene but from a heartbreak that still haunts her. Here, among the seaside community that has embraced her since childhood, she finds comfort in the familiar rituals of summer.
But this summer is different. Budgie and Nick Greenwald—Lily’s former best friend and former fiancé—have arrived, too, and Seaview’s elite are abuzz. Under Budgie’s glamorous influence, Lily is seduced into a complicated web of renewed friendship and dangerous longing.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
And when we go crashing down, we come back every time
‘Cause we never go out of style
We never go out of style.
“Out of the Woods” = Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
Peggy Hillcoat is eight years old when her survivalist father, James, takes her from their home in London to a remote hut in the woods and tells her that the rest of the world has been destroyed. They repair the hut, bathe in water from the river, hunt and gather food in the summers and almost starve in the harsh winters.
They mark their days only by the sun and the seasons. When Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest and begins a search for their owner, she unwittingly begins to unravel the series of events that brought her to the woods and, in doing so, discovers the strength she needs to go back home.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
When we decided
To move the furniture so we could dance,
Baby, like we stood a chance
Two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying
And I remember thinkin’
Are we out of the woods?
“All You Had to Do Was Stay” = This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
The death of Judd Foxman’s father marks the first time that the entire Foxman clan has congregated in years. There is, however, one conspicuous absence: Judd’s wife, Jen, whose affair with his radio- shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public.
Simultaneously mourning the demise of his father and his marriage, Judd joins his dysfunctional family as they reluctantly sit shiva-and spend seven days and nights under the same roof. The week quickly spins out of control as longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed and old passions are reawakened. Then Jen delivers the clincher: she’s pregnant.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
People like you always want back the love they gave away
And people like me wanna believe you when you say you’ve changed
The more I think about it now the less I know.
“Shake it Off” = Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Harry, an orphan, lives with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. One day just before his eleventh birthday, an owl tries to deliver a mysterious letter—the first of a sequence of events that end in Harry meeting a giant man named Hagrid.
Hagrid explains Harry’s history to him: When he was a baby, the Dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, attacked and killed his parents in an attempt to kill Harry; but the only mark on Harry was a mysterious lightning-bolt scar on his forehead. Now he has been invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the headmaster is the great wizard Albus Dumbledore.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
I never miss a beat
I’m lightning on my feet
And that’s what they don’t see.
“I Wish You Would” = Looking for Alaska by John Green
Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe.
Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
I wish you would come back,
Wish I never hung up the phone like I did.
I wish you knew that I’ll never forget you as long as I live.
And I wish you were right here, right now, it’s all good.
“Bad Blood” = A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series has become, in many ways, the gold standard for modern epic fantasy. Martin—dubbed the “American Tolkien” by Time magazine—has created a world that is as rich and vital as any piece of historical fiction, set in an age of knights and chivalry and filled with a plethora of fascinating, multidimensional characters that you love, hate to love, or love to hate as they struggle for control of a divided kingdom. It is this very vitality that has led it to be adapted as the HBO miniseries “Game of Thrones.”
Most Fitting Lyrics:
Did you have to do this? I was thinking that you could be trusted.
Did you have to ruin what was shiny? Now it’s all rusted.
“Wildest Dreams” = Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter–but is he really a killer?
Most Fitting Lyrics:
He’s so tall and handsome as hell
He’s so bad but he does it so well
I can see the end as it begins.
“How You Get the Girl” = Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind.
When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
Stand there like a ghost shaking from the rain
She’ll open up the door and say, “Are you insane?”
Say it’s been a long 6 months
And you were too afraid to tell her what you want.
“This Love” = Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life, and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
Your kiss, my cheek, I watched you leave
Your smile, my ghost, I fell to my knees
When you’re young you just run
But you come back to what you need.
“I Know Places” = The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games.
When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
Just grab my hand and don’t ever drop it
My love
They are the hunters, we are the foxes
And we run.
“Clean” = Wild by Cheryl Strayed
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone.
Most Fitting Lyrics:
10 months sober, I must admit
Just because you’re clean don’t mean you don’t miss it
10 months older, I won’t give in
Now that I’m clean I’m never gonna risk it.
What books have you reminded you of a Taylor Swift song?
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