Books So Good They Wrote A Song About It

Just a fun little list of books that have inspired songs. Please list the book and the song with the artist in your suggestions, or if it's a concept album based on a book, just include the book and the album with the artist. I will not be including any books by JKR, Neil Gaiman, or Orson Scott Card, or songs by Iced Earth. Will not be adding musicals based on books, songs written for films based on books, or songs that are classic poems to music.

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created by farron

last updated November, 2025

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further kpop brainrot, specifically BTS lol. their Wings album was heavily inspired by Hermann Hesse's Demian and their other album Map of the Soul: Persona was inspired by Murray Stein's book of the same name, Jung's Map of the Soul.

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Kpop brainrot incominggggg 🫨 “Hyde” by VIXX, inspired by The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde “Scientist” by VIXX, inspired by Perfume: The Story of a Murderer “Magic Shop” by BTS, inspired by Into the Magic Shop by James Doty “Wonderboy, the Aerialist” by GWSN, inspired by Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by ARTMS, inspired by the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

Also Rina Sawayama has a song “Frankenstein” which seems to be inspired by the book

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Love that song by Rina!!

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It’s on loop for me frfr

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Oh btw do plays count? If so, there's "Sweet Ophelia" by Zella Day, inspired by Ophelia from Hamlet

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Hmmm, I'm not sure I'd include every play, but Shakespeare's basically part of the British literary canon so I'll include it!

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Magic Shop 🤗

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The Screwtape Letters for The Oh Hellos’ Dear Wormwood <3

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Roots by Alex Haley // Madinka by Sinead O'Connor Ishmael by Daniel Quinn // Do the Evolution by Pearl Jam Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch // The Velvet Underground 1984 by George Orwell // David Bowie The Odyssey by Homer // Symphony X The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri // Dante's Prayer by Loreena McKennit The Rocket Man by Ray Bradbury // Rocket Man by Elton John Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury // Something Wicked (That Way Went) by Vernian Process Dracula by Bram Stoker // Sincerely Yours, Jonathan Harker by Schoolyard Heroes Orlando by Virginia Woolf // Orlando in Love by Japanese Breakfast Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier // Tori Amos The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien // Nightfall in Middle-Earth (concept album) by Blind Guardian The Hobbit // Blind Guardian The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway // Garbage The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things // Cherry Lips by Garbage Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte // Kate Bush Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay // Nemo by Nightwish Lord of the Rings series by JRR Tolkien // Blind Guardian The Wheel of time series by Robert Jordan // Blind Guardian A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin // A Voice in the Dark ; War of Thrones by Blind Guardian The Once and Future King by TH White // A Past and Future Secret by Blind Guardian The Dark Tower series by Stephen King // Somewhere Far Beyond by Blind Guardian

as a metal fan i suddenly realize i've made a mistake

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Ok Iron Maiden's done so. So many. I'm just including the ones I can personally recall and aren't Orson Scott Card lmao

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge // The Ghost of Navigators Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis

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