Tunes and Tomes: Books About Music

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone!

HopLit hosts David & Emily continue their pop culture July series with a Tunes & Tomes Bookstack 6-pack celebrating books about music. From memoirs to music journalism and criticism to fiction, we’re sharing our favorite books about musicians and their art. In addition, the hosts of HopLit review recent readings, recap their weekend at the Columbus Book Fest, share the TBR stacks they picked up at the festival, celebrate International Zine Month, and pay tribute to Andrea Gibson, a talented poet who passed away in mid-July. 

Emily's picks
I Sing to Use the Waiting: A Collection of Essays About Women Singers Who've Made Me Who I Am by by Zachary Pace
Hip Hop is History by Questlove
Led Zepplin: The Biography by Bob Spitz

David's picks
The Only Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kristin Cronn-Mills
So Much Synth by Brenda Shaughnessy

We'd love to hear your picks as well, so share them with us on social media!

HopLit is a beery book podcast for everyone, with no snobbery and no pretense. We don't believe in guilty pleasures of either the liquid or literary varieties. Whatever you're reading and however you're reading it, and whatever you're drinking or if you're not drinking at all, this podcast is for you.

HopLit is hosted by David Nilsen & Emily Swank.

David Nilsen is a full-time beer writer and educator living near Dayton, Ohio. He's an Advanced Cicerone© and a member of the North American Guild of Beer Writers and the British Guild of Beer Writers. He is a former public librarian and book critic. You can find him online at davidnilsenbeer.com and davidnilsenwriter.com and on Instagram and Bluesky @davidnilsenbeer.

Emily Swank is an English teacher and the creator behind the Instagram account @thebeercanon. The Beer Canon works to pair books with craft beer, and has its own monthly brewery hopping book club. She's hosted bookish events with Columbus Brewing Company and Seventh Son Brewing, and is based in Columbus, Ohio.