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Books for Swifties!
21
items Books that inspired Taylor Swift songs, books shes mentioned or that I feel give Taylor vibes!
Sections
2
Inspired Songs
Books Taylor Has Read
Inspired Songs
These are books that have been referenced in Taylor Swift songs! Some are definite, some are references Swifties have worked out along the way
One of my favourite books of all time! And of course inspired Tolerate It by Taylor Swift. It keeps you wanting more as you get deeper into the plot - I couldn’t stop reading it.
When you listen to Tolerate It after reading this…wow it’s a whole dif...
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®
Of course this inspired Wonderland on 1989! Such a beautiful cover too!
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland|Hardcover
where the iconic line But Daddy I Love Him comes from
The Little Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales (MinaLima Edition) by Hans Christian Andersen, MinaLima | Waterstones
Multiple songs pull from this - of course you have the obvious reference in Peter, but cardigan also references this story “Peter losing Wendy”!
Peter Pan (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions) by J. M. Barrie, Hardcover
I think Shakespeare would be delighted to know he inspired one of the best Taylor Swift Songs of all time - Love Story!
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Adrian Poole | Waterstones
This play inspired The Fate Of Ophelia! A classic tale of Taylor taking a tragedy and turning it into a love song
Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Paul Prescott | Waterstones
The Reputation classic I would say! Taylor often makes references to this book such as:
“I once was poison ivy, now I’m your Daisy” in Don’t Blame Me
and the large lavish party imagery from This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paperback
Believed to have referenced invisible string, mad woman and Dear Reader
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Hardcover
This book inspired Carolina, which was written for the movie adaption of the book. Carolina is my favourite non-album Taylor song, it is so hauntingly beautiful. I much preferred the book to the movie adaption, and really missed the points of the boo...
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Paperback
Taylor has previously recommended this as a great read, and then went on to mention it in the song The Tortured Poets Department (You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith) and loml (we were Just Kids babe)
Just Kids by Patti Smith, Paperback
This book inspired “…Ready For It?” (Burton to this Taylor” and of course “Elizabeth Taylor”!
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
Taylor is a huge Hunger Games fan and of course wrote both “Safe and Sound” and “Eyes Open” for the soundtrack of the movie!
The Hunger Games Book Series
I Hate It Here’s inspiration
“Secret gardens in my mind”
This is a strong childhood favourite of mine! I read it as a really young (perhaps precocious) child and I was totally absorbed into it’s world. I read it again when TTPD was released and it’...
The Secret Garden (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)|Hardcover
This book is referenced in folklore!
First it is referenced in “the 1”, where the ending echos the song (no spoilers here so I won’t quote it!)
And then it is also referenced in “invisible string” where the book has the line “isn’t it pretty to th...
The Sun Also Rises (Signature Classics) by Ernest Hemingway, Paperback
This classic is referenced in both New Romantics “our different scarlet letters” and in Love Story where Taylor calls herself a scarlet letter also!
The Scarlet Letter (Signature Classics) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Paperback
A must for any hardcore Swiftie who wishes to deep dive into Taylor’s lyrics. Emily Dickinson seems to be interwoven into a lot of Taylor’s work, in particular evermore. Ivy can be thought to be referencing the life of Emily Dickinson and it’s likely...
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson|Paperback
Getaway Car has a line almost directly quoted from this book!
The book says “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
Taylor says “it was the best of times, the worst of crimes” which is a clever change to create a rhyming scheme!
A Tale of Two Cities (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) by Charles Dickens, ...
Books Taylor Has Read
The audiobook that Taylor was listening to in Episode 1 of The End Of An Era. I’m currently halfway through and I’m really enjoying the thrill of it all
The God of the Woods: A Novel by Liz Moore, Paperback
Taylor recommended this to a fan, and said she really enjoyed reading this!
I recently read this whilst on vacation, and sped through it in a matter of three days, I felt like I couldn’t put it down.
I feel like the way this is written it really ke...
Normal People: A Novel - Sally Rooney
Of course we know the main reason Taylor recommended this is due to the series featuring a partner of hers, but she also said that she really enjoyed the book, as it felt like the writers tone took her truly inside of someones mind!
Conversations with Friends: A Novel by Rooney
A classic recommendation from Taylor : she stated that she loved how scenes from the book were so deeply described and woven with revelations that she felt as though she had been taken out of her own mind and into the world of the authors - that’s hi...
The Beautiful and Damned: Fitzgerald, F. Scott