• Love Is a Mix Tape

  • Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
  • By: Rob Sheffield
  • Narrated by: Rob Sheffield
  • Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (423 ratings)

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Love Is a Mix Tape  By  cover art

Love Is a Mix Tape

By: Rob Sheffield
Narrated by: Rob Sheffield
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Publisher's summary

“The happiest, saddest, sweetest book about rock ‘n’ roll that I’ve ever experienced.”—Chuck Klosterman

Mix tapes: We all have our favorites. Stick one into a deck, press play, and you’re instantly transported to another time in your life. For Rob Sheffield, that time was one of miraculous love and unbearable grief. A time that spanned seven years, it started when he met the girl of his dreams, and ended when he watched her die in his arms. Using the listings of fifteen of his favorite mix tapes, Rob shows that the power of music to build a bridge between people is stronger than death. You’ll listen to these words, perhaps surprisingly, with joy in your heart and a song in your head—the one that comes to mind when you think of the love of your life.

Praise for Love is a Mixtape

“A memoir that manages, no small feat, to be funny and beautifully forlorn at the same time.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Humorous, heartbreaking, and heroic.”—Entertainment Weekly

“The finest lines ever written about rock ‘n’ roll . . . Like that song on the radio, every word of Rob’s book is true. Love is a mix tape.”—Rolling Stone

“Many of us use pop culture as a mirror of our emotional lives, but Sheffield happily walks right through the looking glass.”—Los Angeles Times

“Sheffield writes with such aching remembering, you feel like you are invading his privacy . . . and it’s the truth of those details that make this memoir so touching.”—Newsweek

©2007 Rob Sheffield (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"No rock critic- living or dead, American or otherwise- has ever written about pop music with the evocative, hyperpoetic perfectitude of Rob Sheffield. Love is a Mix Tape is the happiest, saddest, greatest book about rock'n'roll that I've ever experienced."–Chuck Klosterman, bestselling author of Fargo Rock Cty, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Killing Yourself to Live and Chuck Klosterman IV

"This is a lightly-handed, skillful and sincere celebration of pop, of love, sad songs, bad songs and the long, nearly unbearable ache of being a young widower. Witty and wise; a true candidate for the All-Time Desert Island Top 5 Books About Pop Music."–Kirkus, starred review

"I can't think of many books as appealing as Rob Sheffield's Love is a Mix Tape; Sheffield writes beautifully about music, he's hilarious, and his story is alternatingly joyous and heartbreaking. Plus, everyone knows there's no better way to organize history and make sense of life than through the mix tape."–Haven Kimmel, bestselling author of She Got Up Off the Couch, A Girl Named Zippy and The Solace of Leaving Early

Featured Article: The top 100 memoirs of all time


All genres considered, the memoir is among the most difficult and complex for a writer to pull off. After all, giving voice to your own lived experience and recounting deeply painful or uncomfortable memories in a way that still engages and entertains is a remarkable feat. These autobiographies, often narrated by the authors themselves, shine with raw, unfiltered emotion sure to resonate with any listener. But don't just take our word for it—queue up any one of these listens, and you'll hear exactly what we mean.

What listeners say about Love Is a Mix Tape

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A sad story in a happy wrapper.

I really enjoyed this book. Music is the way i relate to people or memories and this author just gets it. You follow his life through the mix tapes he made and even though it is a story of loss you cannot help, but smile. You fall in love with Renee and you feel Rob's emotions through out the story. You are in love when he is and you are at the point of tears when he is grieving. This is a must read/listen. Oh and for a similar book, for you fellow audiophiles I recommend Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Mixing it with lots of sweet love

I finished this audio last night and already told 2 friends to read/listen to this book. It's heart felt and heart breaking. It is a country song, a ranchera - it's a story full of emotions that will send you running towards a Kleenex box. Rob Sheffield's wife dies before his eyes, literally dies in less than 1 minute and this is the story of them. His reverence, and story telling through music gives you a glimpse of their lives together and how much he truly adored her. It's heart wrenching because it is real. It's one of those books that gets to the real deal of life: it's unexpected, it's sweet and painful. It is a love story wrapped in a cassette tape with musical memories taking you from one vignette to the next. It is an honest and reflective experience about loss and the grief and pain that follow losing your heart and soul. Sheffield takes you into his reading circle and shares an event so tragic and so sad but somehow still makes you laugh and smile. Through mix tape memory lane he introduces you to his family, his awkwardness, his love of music, his humor, his wife and musical co-conspirator Renee. He celebrates her, grieves for her and figures out a new life without her. It is a very brave and honest book. This is FOR SURE worth the time especially if you EVER mixed a tape. If you mixed a tape back in the day, you will get it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Best love story I've ever read

This book is a must have for anyone who has ever been in love. I don't typically read and couldn't stop listening. I listened to the whole book in one night! Check out more reviews for the book don't just take my word for it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Performance

While I understand the prestige of having the author read, and sometimes it does work like Toni Morrison reading Beloved, this was a terrible idea for this book. Rob is a fantastic writer, but him reading ruins this book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Get this book!

This book is full of the magic that music brings to your life. The good things, the bad things, and the things we wish we could forget all have playlist attached to them. I've read this book in paperback at least twice a year since I bought it years ago and it hasn't lost any of its magic. There is something special about listening to Rob read this very personal book to you. Get this book, you won't regret it.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

If you love Grenadine you'll love this book

Reading the description of this book, I was glad that it didn't turn out to be what I was worried it might be. Clearly this is a sad story, losing your wife and best friend at a young age. But I enjoyed the book more because of how much of it focuses on, and celebrates their brief time together. This is a great ride through the late 80s into the 90s for any of us who scoured our little indie stores for 7" records and didn't know what to think when Kim Deal and Evan Dando were suddenly being played on the radio. If that last sentence makes sense to you, I think you'll enjoy this book. Even if it is sad.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • ES
  • 02-06-24

Good Grief.

This was so witty and charming and self-deprecating and lyrical and memorable and oh my God so painful. So beautiful and so tough. I loved it and it scared me and I just might have to sit here and think about it for a while.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story!

Wasn’t too sure how it was going to go. Choose the book based on the title. So glad I did!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

nostalgia and emotions for days

makes me wish there was an expanded version where you hear every song, or at least a clip

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I've Never Listened to a Mixtape

If I was going to have someone explain to me what a mixtape was, I would want it explained exactly like this. Well. Maybe with a different ending. I love a good cheesy ending where the guy gets the girl. This book has moments of funny, feel-good perfection, but it also has parts that break you apart with a single line of lyrics.
This is the best book about music that I've ever read; it’s also the only book about music I've ever read. In general though, I would have to say this is one of the best books that I've ever read.
And I would also say that if you don't listen to the audiobook, you're missing out on a lot.

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