I personally can’t. I find it too distracting, even lyricless stuff. Oddly the opposite is often okay… I can listen to an audiobook while doing something else mindless and not miss out on details. But a physical or ebook generally takes my full attention.

Only music I cant listen to and read, is if there are any words at all. Just completely messes up everything. From time to time some low volume synthwave is nice.

I have huge jazz mixes and classical mixes that I tend to prefer for reading, but sometimes I go for lo-fi if it’s late and I want my brain off.

When I was a young man I used to come home from work every day, put Marilyn Manson on the stereo, and read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. That’s the last time I can remember actively listening to music while reading a book. Now a days I just read before bed, so no music.

I use an app called myNoise. It generates some sounds based on presets. The ones I use varies by the theme or genre I’m reading. For example, when I’m reading a medieval fantasy, I select Distant Prayers in Gregorian Voices.

It depends a lot on my mood, but quite often I end up listening to classical music. In particular Olga Scheps music I find is a really nice background music for reading or something more dark in nature.

I have five other people living in this house, and nobody ever wants to turn the damn TV off. The only silent reading time I get is right before bed, which puts me to sleep pretty quickly. So if I want to read, I need headphones in, and I try to find instrumental music that’s thematic to the book I’m reading.