Love Is A Mixtape

This is a book review I wrote for The Allegheny View (CCAC School paper) in September 2007. I still feel the same about the book as I did then. I've actually been thinking about rereading it soon. If you haven't read it, give it a shot.

I’m not really an expert of anything. Unlike myself, Rob Sheffield is an expert writer. He is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine and has been a rock critic and pop culture journalist for fifteen years. With the 2007 publication of Rob Sheffield’s first book, “Love Is A Mixtape,” I feel like almost every emotional connection I’ve ever felt between love and music was put into words. Sheffield shows a mixtape track listing at the beginning of each chapter. The track lists are from different mixtapes he has either made himself or acquired over the years. He uses the songs listed to tell the story of his own life. Sheffield’s story isn’t one of amazing stardom or wild uniqueness, but this is where the real greatness of the book lies. It’s the story of a lanky music nerd falling in love, losing his wife, and dealing with this “life and loss one song at a time”. This book is part love story, part pop culture commentary, and part eulogy. At any given moment in the book I could see myself in Rob’s shoes dealing with these real life dilemmas. This book might not be for everybody. Although, if you’ve ever fallen in love, with another person or a mixtape, I think it’s for you. I think Rob Sheffield sums it up pretty well when he says, “Every mixtape tells a story. Put them together, and they add up to the story of a life.”