Mostly when I read these days, it's while travelling (which I do too much). I have a walkman-type CD-player that also plays MP3s, so I can burn about 150-200 MP3 tracks on disc, hit random play, and not have to listen to the sound of the hotel staff, ice machine, plane engines, etc. Mostly instrumental atmospheric stuff.
I've got some "reading" MP3 discs. Here's the kind of stuff to which I was listening while reading "Criss-Cross" over the Hallowe'en weekend:
Brian Eno - In Dark Trees
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
Charles Ives - Hallowe'en
Butch Thompson - Creepy Feeling
The Barrons' score for "Forbidden Planet"
Holst - "Mars, The Bringer of War"
Ennio Morricone's score for "Terminator 2"
Everclear - Halloween Americana
Magnificent Seventh's Brass Band "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (from "New Orleans Jazz Funeral")
Ron Grainer's score for "The Omega Man"
Some of the instrumental pieces from The Stones' "Their Satanic Majesties Request". Always seemed very creepy to me.
Gerry Mulligan's tracks from "The Final Programme", also the "Gandharva" LP
The soundtrack to "Performance" - very creepy stuff by Jack Nitzche, Merri Clayton, Ry Cooder, etc.
Just unusual stuff that sets the mood.
"Flow with the Go."
- Rickson Gracie