2021 Taylor Swift Reading Challenge
Looking for a 2021 reading challenge? I love to give myself some direction at the beginning of the year and — even better — theme-ify my selections. If you are a fellow Swiftie, I’ve got a TBR list for you. Each work in this challenge is either referenced in Taylor’s lyrics, an inspiration for a song or music video, related to a topic she writes about, or a book she’s been seen with. Included here are Instagram story-friendly checklist templates for you, as well as explanations of where each selection comes from.
PART 1:
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. Frost’s most famous (and misinterpreted) poem is the first thing that comes to mind when anyone says “the road less traveled by,” and Taylor makes references in “The Outside” (“I tried to take the road less traveled by/But nothin' seems to work the first few times”), “Illicit Affairs” (“Take the road less traveled by/Tell yourself you can always stop”) and “Tis the Damn Season” (“I'm stayin' at my parents' house/And the road not taken looks real good now”) that evoke Frost’s verse.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In general, star-crossed lovers loom large in Taylor’s songwriting universe, but “Love Story” has explicit references to the Bard’s most famous play: “'Cause you were Romeo. I was a scarlet letter./And my daddy said, ‘Stay away from Juliet’.”
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the tearjerker “The Best Day,” dedicated to her mother Andrea, Taylor makes reference to the famous fairy tale a few times: “Don't know if Snow White's house is near or far away/But I know I had the best day with you today”; “It's the age of princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarfs.”
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. In “State of Grace,” Taylor sings, “These are the hands of fate/You're my Achilles heel.” Achilles is a famous hero of the Trojan War whose story features heavily in The Iliad. But instead of wading through that brick of an epic poem, try Miller’s beautiful imagining.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The classic topsy-turvy tale provides the namesake and reference points for 1989’s bonus track, “Wonderland” (“Took a wrong turn and we/Fell down a rabbit hole”… “Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds?”… “We found Wonderland/You and I got lost in it/And we pretended it could last forever”… “Didn't you calm my fears with a Cheshire Cat smile?”… “And in the end, in Wonderland, we both went mad”). On 2020’s evermore, Taylor returns to Wonderland in “long story short”: “And I fell from the pedestal/Right down the rabbit hole/Long story short, it was a bad time.”
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. See above for a “scarlet letter” reference in “Love Story.” Taylor also invokes the classic in “New Romantics”: “We show off our different scarlet letters/Trust me, mine is better.” The Scarlet Letter also remains relevant AF for how it portrays society’s disparate reactions to the behaviors of men and women.
PART 2:
The Secret Conversations by Ava Gardner and Peter Evans. The Secret Conversations reportedly served as part of the inspiration for the “Wildest Dreams” music video, which is steeped in Old Hollywood vibes and even co-stars Scott Eastwood, the offspring of a Hollywood legend.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. The most famous line from Slaughterhouse is the namesake of reputation’s “So It Goes…”. While Vonnegut uses “so it goes” to refer to death and the acceptance of it, Taylor uses it to comment on the death of her reputation as well as acceptance of the bad that comes with the good in relationships.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The opening line of “Getaway Car” (“It was the best of times, the worst of crimes”) is a play on the most famous line from the Dickens classic. Much like Taylor’s reputation album, it also contains themes of darkness and light and resurrection.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It may be cliché, but Gatsby is one of my all-time favorites (and it entered the public domain this year, so we’re probably about to get a lot of reimaginings and variations on it from writers, artists, and filmmakers). Aside from just seeming like a book that Taylor would like, there are several overt Gatsby references in her work. In “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” she talks about her big parties and how she was “feeling so Gatsby for that whole year.” In “happiness” she references a famous line by Daisy Buchanan: “I hope she'll be a beautiful fool/Who takes my spot next to you.” She also references “the green light of forgiveness,” which connects to the green light burning at the end of Daisy’s dock. She’s made tangential or maybe indirect references in other songs, as well: in “the 1” she sings about “Roaring 20s, tossing pennies in the pool” and in “Don’t Blame Me” she sings, “I once was poison ivy, but now I'm your daisy.”
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. While “Never Grow Up” is not necessarily a direct Peter Pan reference, it’s certainly a mood. More explicitly, Taylor references “tried to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy” in folklore’s “cardigan.”
The poems of William Wordsworth. folklore’s bonus track “the lakes” references the legendary wordsmith in generalities (“Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die/I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you/Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry/I'm setting off, but not without my muse”) and in a punny burn at Scooter Braun (“I've come too far to watch some namedropping sleaze/Tell me what are my words worth”).
EXTRA CREDIT:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Taylor wrote/co-wrote two great songs for the Hunger Games soundtrack: “Safe and Sound” and “Eyes Open” (which in my mind is an underrated bop that perfectly works as a Hunger Games story and as an extended metaphor for fame).
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. Taylor and Zayn Malik’s “I Just Wanna Live Forever” is a catchy ditty that was written for the film based on the novel.
Blue Blood by Craig Unger. This 1988 tome is a hard-to-find but extensive exploration of Rebekah Harkness, heiress to the Standard Oil fortune and former owner of Taylor’s Rhode Island Holiday House. In “the last great american dynasty,” Taylor explores Rebekah’s story: “Rebekah gave up on the Rhode Island set forever/Flew in all the Bitch Pack friends from the city/Filled the pool with champagne and swam with the big names/And blew through the money on the boys and the ballet/And losing on card game bets with Dalí.”
Go Down Together by Jeff Guinn. Guinn’s deep dive on folk heroes Bonnie and Clyde will be an interesting read for fans of “Getaway Car” (hi, me).
The Kennedy Women by Laurence Lerner. Taylor read this 900-page heavy-hitter before befriending Ethel Kennedy (whose relationship with Bobby Kennedy was the inspiration for “Starlight”) and before dating Conor Kennedy (whose relationship with Taylor served as the inspiration for “Everything Has Changed”).
Open Book by Jessica Simpson. For those of us “Dear John” stans, Jessica’s (honestly awesome) memoir offers some more insight into John-Mayer-as-boyfriend. It’s not a pretty picture and, truth be told, makes me stan “Dear John” even harder.
Happy reading, my friends! If you use these templates as checklists on your Insta stories, please tag us at @livethemovies and we’ll share on our stories! Did I miss any good and relevant recommendations? If so, comment below! You can also check out this post from right after folklore dropped: 10 things to read, watch, and look at after you listen to Taylor Swift's "folklore".
