the other night i finished a new book that will be added to my list of favorites. "love is a mix tape: life and loss, one song at a time" by rob sheffield, a contributing editor at rolling stone, kept me up past my bedtime a few nights in a row. the memoir tells the story of sheffield's life with a music loving punk girl, renee, who he met in the late eighties. though the two didn't really have much in common but their mutual love of music, they fell in love and got married two years later. they spent their few short years together discovering, discussing and enjoying the indie rock music that exploded in the early nineties to create the grunge scene.
each chapter of the book begins with the track list from a chosen mix tape. sheffield's large collection of these tokens from the past are what inspired this book in the first place. each one brought back many memories of a time spent with a girl who's life ended way before people were ready to let her go. it was fun to read through each list comprised of everything from yo la tengo to abba and everything in between. i got excited each time there was a track that i knew and loved, ones that even brought back a flood of memories for me. one in particular - "thirteen" by big star...elliott smith's version is one of my all time favorite songs.
i was a little sad when i reached the last sentence of this great book, but happy that i discovered it in the first place.
