Before I started doing so I didn’t think I’d be such a long list. But I surprised myself. However the idiom says “the clothes make the man” perhaps one can in the same manner judge my mind, brain, intellect or personality by the books I have currently loaded up on ? feel free to speculate and comment. I will not be offended.

• Dresden files by Jim Butcher (all 10 books, read)
• Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher (read)
• Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (read)
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark (not read yet)
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (read and recommended)
• When SysAdmins Ruled the World by Cory Doctorow (short story, read, recommended)
• Nightside series by Simon R. Green (all books to date, read, somewhat recommended)
• The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan (started not completed, recommended so far)
• The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (read, classic, recommended)
• CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (not read, on todo list)
• Crito by Plato (not read but on todo list)
• Grey Walker by Kat Richardson (not started on)
• The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (not read)
• Burnout: the mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281 by Stephanie Osborn (not started on)
• A Dark Matter by Peter Straub (currently reading – not recommended so far)
• Wireless by Charles Stross (read, recommended)
• The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross (read, somewhat recommended)
• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (started on, so far recommended)
• Halting State by Charles Stross (read, recommended)
• The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (read, recommended)
• Accelerando by Charles Stross (read, somewhat recommended)
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles trans. (read)
• Nightlife by Rob Thurman (read, recommended)
• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Jonathan Star trans. (on todo list)
• Candide by Voltaire (not read, on todo list)
• Starfish by Peter Watts (not read)
• Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (read, recommended)
• My Man jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (read, recommended)

In the past few days I have rediscovered my joy of reading books, and actually enjoying listening to music again.

By this I mean more than just listening to random tracks on my iPhone, but also paying attention to the music and alle the details in the artists work. I have been so used to just having music on in the background or listening to it on the bus to and from work, without actually listening. If this makes any sense to you, well done give yourself a pat on the back…

Current rediscoveries: Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls, Tegan & Sara and Mazzy Star

Recommended listening from these fine artists:

Ani Difranco – Cradle and All and the album “Live at Babeville”

Indigo Girls – Become You, Yield and their cover of Mrs. Robinson

Current new discoveries:

Sia -

Now they say you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but that is what I did with this album.

The cover art and title made me buy this album, and it was good, very good.. I took a chance with iTunes Music Store’s recommendations and bought it without even “previewing” it on Spotify. The title of the album was:

Sia - Some people have REAL problems (album art)

It just looked so whimsical and fun that I had to buy it, and the lyrics are quite amusing. Some make little or no sense. But you get the feeling that it was supposed to be like that, and you just enjoy the song (particularly “Academia“) and with an album title like this, how could I resist.

Her vocals are very dominant on most of the tracks with all the instruments playing second fiddle so to speak. Pardon the deadbeat joke there, it was to obvious to leave out. I recommend this album without any reservations. However if whimsical and lighthearted music is not something you generally enjoy you might reconsider.

Other discoveries:

Erin McKeown -

The entire album “We Will Become Like Birds” but especially the song Aspera. And from the album Grand I recommend   Slung-lo and The Taste of You. Now if you really want to stalk me, my last.fm profile will show you what I have listened to recently.

On a completely different matter, if you are like me and are using last.fm and Spotify, you might want to take a look at this:

Last.fm Spotify Search – Script that adds a wee green note icon next to tracks, albums and artists on Last.fm’s website. To use, install Greasemonkey then add the script. You can then click the note icon to search in Spotify. I find this one really useful, it saves on typing and binds Last.fm and Spotify together nicely (Full article here.)

There are similar “plugins” for those who use Safari as well, I will update with details when I find that link (or I might end up writing my own how-to)

Since I’ve put a fair few Spotify links in this article I will also put some Spotify invites here (on a first come first serve basis), if you try them and they don’t work, odds are someone beat you to it. The invites listen below:

1. c27E3jifiZp4ff4S this one is used, and without even leaving a comment of thanks…..

2. jN72Nkby7cBXTNnb

3. PmHi5PVuxtYZeXUd