Books & Music

I've spent the last week stocking up on boring banalities. This is always how it is. I start with some crazy list that includes doctor's appointments, electric coverters and buying stuff. I cross stuff off until I'm finally left with the more intriguing choices: books and music. Here's what I'm traveling with.

Books:

• The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton
  
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  
• The Caliph's House by Tahir Shah
  
• Stars & Planets (can NOT visit a dark sky without a star chart)
  
• plus Lonely Planet Morocco & Rick Steves Spain
  
• I'm gonna grab a copy of The Atlantic at the airport, too

The music question's interesting since this is the first time I'm going overseas with an ipod. The last time I left town for months, I left my music collection behind, too. I don't see a specific reason to do it again, but truthfully, I didn't miss it. When you visit places that are so different from what you know, most music that you already know sounds jarring and incongruous to the landscape anyway.

So this time my ipod is well-stocked. I kept all the Daft Punk and Justice I've been listening to, and before I left work on Thursday, I added:

• a couple of Sound Opinions podcasts
  
• the latest This American Life
  
• a bunch of Calexico
  
• the new Dirty Projectors
  
• Erin McKeown's Distillation
  
• the latest Fader mix
  
• a couple of Fatback mixes
  
• Danger Mouse's The Grey Album
  
• Radiohead's The Bends, OK Computer and In Rainbows
  
• some Ratatat (not sure which album)
  
• a couple of Daptone compilations (links here)

I'm most likely being wildly optimistic in thinking I'll get to read or listen to half of all that, but it's nice to have choices!

Anyway, I'm signing off for a few weeks. Be well and look for photos and blog posts upon my return.