We're getting festive today on Rhythm Encounter, but maybe not in the way you'd expect. It's the end of year holiday season, and we are taking inspiration from a holiday that celebrates another thing I like as much as video game music: books! Jólabókaflóðið — which roughly translates to "Christmas book flood" — is an Icelandic Christmas Eve tradition where people gift each other books and stay up reading them, possibly with a nice hot cocoa. We thought this was a great opportunity to provide some excellent video game music to pair with various authors, genres, and specific reads. Please join our assembled panel of connoisseurs as we discuss the two together. Happy reading, listening, and holidays!

Featuring: Hilary Andreff, Rob White, Audra Bowling, and Matt Wardell; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links and books mentioned in this episode

Jólabókaflóðið official site
Between Two Fires - Chris Buehlman (The Road x Dark Souls)
Blade Runner “Ash” Comic Series (2019, 2029, 2039) - Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe
Chronicles of the Avatar Series - F.C. Lee (Kyoshi and Yangcheng duologies) and Randy Ribay (Roku duology)
The City and the City - China Miéville (Disco Elysium adjacent)
Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage - Haruki Murakami
Fifteen Dogs - Andre Alexis (Gods give dogs human intelligence)
Legend of Exorcism: Tianbao Fuyao Lu Series - Fei Tian Ye Xiang
Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Pandora’s Star - Peter F. Hamilton
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
The Shadow on the Glass - Ian Irvine
Shakespeare’s Tremor and Orwell’s Cough - John J. Ross, M.D.

Tracklist

In Search of Lost Time
0:12:26 - Before the Fall (Laurence Chapman) - Heaven’s Vault
0:23:05 - Last Silhouette (Masafumi Takada) - Digimon Story: Time Stranger

The Canterbury Tales
0:33:55 - Adventure of the Would-be Hero (Oliver Good) - Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars
0:45:32 - Sic arsit historia kiersis (Alkemie) - Pentiment

The Left Hand of Darkness
0:57:42 - Voices from the Abyss (Izumi Wu, Rizet Tseng, Hong Zhang Su) - Xuan-Yuan Sword 7
1:12:29 - The Insulindian Miracle (Sea Power) - Disco Elysium

A Scanner Darkly
1:23:55 - Signal Haze (Amos Roddy) - Citizen Sleeper
1:35:17 - When Mother Was There (Shoji Meguro) - Persona 5
1:52:40 - Matt's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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172 - Happy Jólabókaflóðið!