[Kinger]

Just curious......do many of you out there also read while listening to your music?  If so, what music do you normally select to read by?  Classical?  Jazz?  New Age?  Does it have to be something without vocals for you to clearly concentrate on the reading or does the presence of vocals in the background not really bother you?

[nathanm]

I absolutely can't do it, it has to be one or the other.

[AB]

Ulrich Schnauss

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=v8l6uEdCTGM&feature=related

[Photon46]

I can't read serious literature with anything playing that has vocals, too distracting. The volume can't be too loud, has to be more "background" level. Usually listen to classical music that's on the more spartan side, no Romantic bombast when trying to read. Generally though, when I'm concentrating on reading, I do it in silence.

[Construct]

Same here-instrumentals only, and not bombastic material.

[mjosef]

any genre...matters not...who is in control...you? or your wayward mind?
 

[Kinger]

Funny you mention Ulrich AB....just picked up Goodbye this past week.

[Wind Chaser]

I absolutely can't do it, it has to be one or the other.

Same here.  I remember some students from university that could study and listen to their favorite music at a loud volume.  Go figure.

[CSI]

I can't do it. I've tried. I'd love to be able to, it would increase my music time tremendously. But it just doesn't work. I think it may be an artifact of audiophila - if there is a sound system on you pay attention. Or it may just be a character flaw. More's the pity.

[Mama Virtue]

I can't do it. I've tried. I'd love to be able to, it would increase my music time tremendously. But it just doesn't work. I think it may be an artifact of audiophila - if there is a sound system on you pay attention. Or it may just be a character flaw. More's the pity.

LOL I have no idea you guys, I have no problem listening to music and reading....Jason on the other hand would not be able to do that (course he barely gets through Stereophile and Absolute Sound without getting a headache). So perhaps its a gender thing? Of course I guess it depends on what you listen to and what you read. Some of my favorite pairings are Dean Koontz and Disturbed or Breaking Benjamin, or of course  Nora Roberts and anything from Evanescence to Elisa to Norah Jones. Count of Monte Cristo (abridged, am dying to get my hands on the unabridged version) with Vivaldi or Beethoven, or Andre Bocceli. Invisible Man (Author-Ellison) with any depressing 60-70's era band    . Then again, I don't do SERIOUS listening when I'm reading, I absorb the book and the music is mood setting. I did however have trouble once when Nora Roberts had a character that was a composer and I was listening to Slipknot   LOL that did not work very well. Eh what can I say  , I'm a newbie to Audiophila, Jason has done his best to teach me. I tend to listen to music that moves me, and if sounds great on what is producing it then awesome....if not... oh well, however in the last 4 years bad sound has severely disappointed me,  never thought I'd know the difference!

[decal]

It's one or the other for me.I have a one track mind,my Mom says I'm special!!

[Mama Virtue]

 

[TrungT]

I can read, study or sleep with music on.
Pandora rock 
Specially, I sleep on daytime, Loud music block everything else out. 

[mjosef]

Specially, I sleep on daytime, Loud music block everything else out. 

Night-crawler?

[TrungT]

^^^^^^^^
More likely "Night walker"  but you are right, sometime "crawler" 

[Noseyears]

Some ambient music is perfect when im reading something...it just loose my mind.

[Scottdazzle]

I need quiet to read.  When music is on, I concentrate on the music, whether I want to or not.  When I was in my 20's I could do both at once, but not anymore.