The music bump is “Beale Street Blues,” a popular piece of music from around the time the book was written, and furthermore, a piece of music that gets specifically mentioned in the text. This particular recording was made a few years later, sung by the still amazing Ella Fitzgerald. No relation to the author, but I hope I didn’t need to tell you that.

The music bump is “Bullhead City” by Umphries McGee, mostly because of something Ben said during the episode about losing a fortune twice. Total stream of consciousness on this one.

The music bump is from the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, commonly referred to as the “Pathetique” symphony. Light research reveals that this is translated from a Russian word for passion, rather than something deserving pity.

The music bump is “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac, chosen both for sharing a name with the love interest in this book and for being specifically referenced in the text.

The music bump is “Journey Home” by Maria Schneider, partly because of the hundred page journey home across the glaciers of Gethen, but mostly because I like it.

For those of you who have read the book already, here’s something interesting that I found:

The music bump is “Hysteria” by Muse because lol.

The music bump is “Keasbey Nights” by a band called, appropriately, Catch-22.

43 – Catch-22 – A Collection of Jokes With No Plot

A quick correction: The Perilous Gard is by Elizabeth Marie Pope, not Warren. Warren is actually the name of the family in the book.

The music bump is “It Was A Very Good Year” as arranged by Gordon Goodwin and performed by Take Six and Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band.

42 – 2012-13 Year in Review

A quick correction: North Dakota did not pass a “personhood” law, they merely okayed putting a “personhood” law up for referendum.

The music bump this week is Fiction Plane’s setting of Louis Sachar’s lullaby from the book, though in a form that is not notably lullaby-ish. Also, this setting would probably play over the end credits of the movie version of Holes, if such a movie existed.

41 – Holes – Sam’s Secret Mountain Onion Garden

The music bump is “Messe de Notre Dame” by Guillaume de Machaut, a contemporary of the novel’s 14th century time line who also happens to share the name of an often referenced character who never actually shows up in the book.

40 – Doomsday Book – Everybody Dies

The music bump is “Brick” by Ben Folds Five for reasons of thematic unity.

39 – Hills Like White Elephants – Not a Wacky Gift Exchange

The music bump is Britney Spears’s “Circus” as covered by Dirty Loops, the funkiest Swedish fusion trio working today.

38 – The Night Circus – Your Imagination

The music bump is “Jane” by Ben Folds, after the title character of this book, who is also arguably the protagonist.

37 – Jane Eyre – Unclose Your Mind

The music bump is “Watership Down,” a surprisingly catchy song by America, the band. (Not to be confused with the book or the country.)

36 – Watership Down – Insane Death Rabbit

To avoid skipping weeks unexpectedly, we are going to begin skipping weeks… expectedly. If that’s a thing. With longer titles, there will now be a two week delay between episodes instead of one week. We’ll let you know as we go along.

The music bumps are from Howard Shore’s excellent score to the movie version of Fellowship, specifically the theme that probably comes to mind when you think of that soundtrack.

35 – The Fellowship of the Ring – Hobbits Are The Best

The music bump is “The Unanswered Question” by Charles Ives, a piece with a very fitting title for this play.

34 – Doubt – Nun-Chuks

The bumps are… self explanatory, assuming you listen to the whole episode.

33 – Bonus Episode – One Does Not Simply Walk Into Game Over

The music bump today is “Witch Hunt” by Rush, which is actually yet another use of witch hunts as a metaphor. Look up the song lyrics if you don’t believe me.

32- The Crucible – Bitches Be Trippin’

A quick administrative note: We will be posting a special holiday bonus episode next week, though we’re not sure which day just yet. The following Tuesday, January 1, we’ll be taking off before resuming our usual weekly schedule of a new post (mostly) every Tuesday.

The music bump is “Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo, appearing in the intro to the book as well as the intro to Jim Halliday’s rather narcissistic posthumous treasure hunt.

31 – Ready Player One – Extreme Nerdery

The music bump is “Who Wants to Live Forever” by the immortal (not literally) Queen.

30 – Tuck Everlasting – Immortality Rules

The music bump is “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky because, dude, Halloween. I’m not entirely sure how this piece of music came to by synonymous with that holiday, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the way it sounds.

29 – Frankenstein – An Eloquent Monster

The music bump is “Brave New World” by Styx, chosen not just for the obvious title tie-in, but at least a small amount of lyrical relevance. Hang out for an extra twenty seconds at the end of the podcast and see if you agree.

28 – Brave New World – Quite Pneumatic

It may not be obvious because of the size of the picture, but the header this week is from an edition of the book that had an egg with a zipper on the cover. The reason we chose this image should be quite obvious by the time you’re about twenty minutes into this episode.

The music bump is “The Creator Has a Mastertape” by Porcupine Tree, not for any specific connection, but rather a general sense of darkness. And the fact that Ben thinks it’s cool.

27 – The Chocolate War – SUBMIT

The music bump is “Times They Are A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan, referenced in the book, as well as the music for the opening of the not especially good Hollywood adaptation.

26 – Watchmen – Who Blanks the Blankmen

This week’s music bump is “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, because I LOVE IT. Oh, also because there’s a lot of discussion about Dust in this book. So look for that. Enjoy!

25 – The Golden Compass – Bears and Witches and Texans, Oh My!

The music bump is “Fables of Faubus” by Charles Mingus, written to poke fun at Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas when he called out the National Guard to prevent Little Rock Central High School from being integrated in 1957.

24 – To Kill a Mockingbird – All Racism, All the Time

Note: We neglected to mention it on the podcast this week, but banned book week is coming up at the end of the month. Our next few books have all been banned or challenged in various places for various reasons. Celebrate with us by reading something controversial!

The music for this week’s episode is “Redshirt” by Jonathan Coulton, which was commissioned by John Scalzi for the release of the novel.

The header is Troy Zimmerman’s (winning) entry in the fan art contest for Redshirts held on John Scalzi’s blog.

23 – Redshirts – Yo Dawg I Heard You Like Star Trek

The music is a possibly recognizable tune that was excerpted from “Consider the Uncommon Man” by David Holsinger. If you make it to the end, you’ll notice it’s been reharmonized in a way that’s a little unsettling. The piece was written as a memorial and seemed appropriate for this episode.

22 – The Fault in Our Stars – The Universe is Not a Wish Factory

Update: A couple quick notes. To give credit where credit is due, the header art this week was drawn by Simini Blocker, rather than pulled from a commercial book cover. Here’s the full image:

Also, I referenced The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, which is not a thing, and Death Masks, which is a thing, but has nothing to do with necromancers. I’m actually reading Dead Beat, still by Jim Butcher, still part of the Dresden Files. And if you’re here, you’ve probably already figured it out, but the website is actually novelideaspodcast.com, not just novelideas.com. Phew.

Music is the Jurassic Park Theme from John William’s excellent score, but I probably didn’t have to tell you that.

21 – Jurassic Park – OMG DINOSAURS

The music this week is Ramin Dwajadi’s title theme to the “Game of Thrones” series on HBO, but I probably don’t have to tell you that unless you’re still hanging out under that rock.

20 – Game of Thrones – What’s West of Westeros

This week’s music bump is “Tallis Variations” by Philip Sparke, based on a Thomas Tallis chorale. If you don’t know why that’s significant, you’ll find out by the end of the episode.

19 – Fifty Shades of Grey – Hate Reading

The music bump is “This is War” by 30 Seconds to Mars because, apparently, I am a very literal person. Also, if you knew how many horrible jokes I avoided while perusing my music library, you would thank me. (#Ben)

18 – Divergent – YA Landscapers

We also made a major update to our schedule yesterday, filling it up through the end of August. We’re going on a bestsellers kick, so most of what is on the schedule has been on the NY Times bestseller list for several weeks. Be sure to check it out if you want to read along with us.

This week’s music bump is Toto’s “Hold the Line,” because… Toto. Oh yeah, and it kind of describes Florentino Ariza to an almost uncanny degree.

17 – Love in the Time of Cholera – Extreme Personalities

The music bump is “Space Fanfare” by Joe Spaniola, performed by the Air Force Band of the Rockies. Because this story is in space and stuff. Also, this piece features one or two recognizable themes because we needed more references.

16 – Foundation – Decline and Fall of the Female Character

The music bump is Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in G minor, K. 108. It was chosen because if ol’ Dom was your pen pal, he would send you Scarlatti Letters.

15 – The Scarlet Letter – Let Us Fling Mud At Them

This week’s music bump is “Read a Book” by Bomani Armah, for reasons which are both clear and present. Or something like that.

14 – Matilda – Rage Miracles

No music bump, but the opening clip is from the 2005 big budget movie production and the ending clip is from the 1981 BBC production. One involves the bigness of space and the other the thoughts of a freshly created sperm whale. We’ll let you figure out which is which.

13 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Don’t Panic

The music bump this week is “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult. It is referenced in the book and happens to be a celebration of the fact that everybody dies.

12 – The Stand – Now You UnTheStand

There is no music bump this week because none was added when the episode was originally mixed. If you need an intro, just shout “Sucks to your ass-mar!” before you play the file.

11 – Lord of the Flies – Sucks to your Ass-mar!

Administrative note: There have been a couple of minor changes to the schedule, due primarily toThe Stand being 1,745,122 pages long. Check the schedule page if you want to see what’s really going to happen around here the next couple weeks.

The music bump is once again Mendelssohn’s “Overture to a Midsummer’s Night Dream” for the same reasons as last week, with the additional reason of “we’re too lazy to come up with a new piece of music this week.”

10 – The Merchant of Venice, Part 2 – Shylock’s Revenge

The music bump this week is “Overture to a Midsummer’s Night Dream” by Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn, like Shylock, is Jewish (hope I didn’t need to spoiler tag that one) and this concert overture was written for a Shakespeare play, just not this one.

09 – The Merchant of Venice, Part 1 – A Four Act Tragedy

The music this week is “The Darkest Day” from David Arnold’s soundtrack for “Independence Day,” because that joke really needed to come full circle.

08 – Childhood’s End – Most Depressing Utopia Ever

The music this week is Rockapella’s arrangement of “Amazing Grace,” because: 1) Rockapella is awesome, 2) Amazing Grace appears in the book, and 3) we find it difficult to take even twenty seconds of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.”

A quick administrative note: If you are reading along at home, there is now a schedule link at the top of the page so you can follow us more easily.

07 – A Handmaid’s Tale – Feminism Gets Boned

The music bump this week is “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News because that is the one thing humans have that IT doesn’t.

06 – A Wrinkle in Time – Tessering Balls

This week’s musical selection is “Sortie (Le Vent De l’Espirit)” by the great Olivier Messiaen. It’s a tad anachronistic, but what self respecting, centuries old, avatar of evil doesn’t want some creepy organ music in the background?

05 – Dracula – Man Brain Fever

The music bump this week is “Hey Nineteen” by Steely Dan. If you read the book closely enough, the joke will be apparent. If you have no idea what that means, drop a comment.

04 – The Giver – You Have Been Released

This week’s music bump is the “Mars” movement from Gustav Holst’s Symphony of the Planets. Because what else could possibly be more appropriate?

03 – Stranger in a Strange Land – Go Grok Yourself

This week’s music bump is Mozart’s Sonata No. 17 in B-flat, mvt III. It was chosen for period appropriateness (even if slightly less contemporary than Beethoven) and because every accomplished young lady is able to play the pianoforte.

02 – Pride and Prejudice – Idiots, Buffoons, and Catastrophic Proposals

Gabs: Overall, as an adaptation, the movie does a pretty good job.  Anyone who was overly offended by adaptations of “Twilight” or “Harry Potter” will largely not have the same issues here.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that this particular adaptation is better than anything you can find in the Harry Potter movie pantheon.  There are not the same completely pointless changes and the feel and tone overall works with the tone of the book, unlike the completely bizarre teen romance created from the awesome creepy mystery of “The Half Blood Prince.”

Ben: I agree that it is a solid adaptation of the book into film.  No major issues with it, just a couple of minor ones, and I’m almost afraid to mention them because I don’t want to turn this into a catalog of fanboy nitpicking.  My first thought is that it was completely unnecessary to cut to a shot of Gale’s face after Katniss leaves District 12 (as you can tell because we didn’t talk about Gale at all in our podcast coverage.  He’s not important to the first book!).  I thought that during the training period they should have focused a little bit more on the strategy that they had as a team instead of making spontaneous decisions in the heat of the moment – such as Katniss and Peeta holding hands during the tribute parade and Peeta throwing the weight in training.

Gabs: The movie added some elements that worked well for the transition to screen, such as having Caesar Flickerman explaining certain aspects of the games or strategies of the tributes.  This was a good way to deliver exposition without making it obvious and helping any viewers who hadn’t read the books.  Some of the exposition was clunky, like Haymitch telling Katniss things about sponsors or the mines under the platforms, which she would obviously already know.  The added thread of Seneca Crane’s interactions with President Snow did a great job of displaying the feelings of the Capitol and gives us some dramatic presence for his death in the next film.

Ben: I didn’t like the casting for Gale.  As soon as he walked on screen, I immediately hated him.  Thresh was far more articulate in the movie because his two five-word sentences were actually complete sentences.  I was disturbed that after Thresh brained the girl against the side of the Cornucopia, the audience around us fucking cheered.  It helped support the point from our podcast about American audiences having the potential for enjoying bloodlust entertainment.

Gabs: One of my main beefs centered around Rue.  The actress did a fine job but we didn’t see anything of her.  All the information she provides Katniss with about District 11 is cut out and it really undermines one of themes of the book, that all the other districts have it just as bad.  The other weak point about Rue was that it made her death a lot less meaningful.  We’ve seen her utter a handful of lines over the span of five minutes.  Why should we care?  The movie did seem to be driving some of the Roman Empire stuff home pretty hard.  I particularly liked the end of Seneca Crane.  He wasn’t killed outright, but shoved in a room and presented with a bowl of nightlock.  Honor suicide.  How very Roman.

This a book podcast so we don’t want to say too much more about the movie and we remind you to check out our more extended thoughts about the book the movie is based on in our previous post.  As we will probably say many, many times in the future: the book is always better.