I meet an avid reader at a party who kept an Excel spreadsheet with every book that he had read.

What I found most interesting about that habit was that he said he could go through the list and remember what was going on in his life when they read that particular book.

I started my 'What I'm Reading' list on the right column of this blog when I started working at Tucows in July. I'm glad to have a record of what I read this past half a year. In trying to remember what I read in the first half of the year, not surprisingly, all I can remember are the books that were really good.

So here is a partial list :

The Davinci Code (an ideal gift at Christmas 2004; perfect for reading in airports as I finished my travels)

Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry - the first book I read when I got back to Canada.  I love Mistry's books.

Mercy Among the Children by David Adam Richards.  A profound story; highly recommended.

Unless by Carol Shields.  I have mixed feelings about this book.  Some parts of it were beautifully written but I found the overall message about modern womanhood (and how it relates to the plot) a bit forced.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger This is not great literature but its a good story.  Recommended reading for anyone considering a job in a highly subjective industry (fashion, music, art).

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides I felt that this novel dragged on at the end (and confession: I skimmed the ending). Since I grew up near Detroit, a city with a rich history, I found the first half of the novel very interesting. 

Raymond and Hannah by Stephen Marche.  A good old Toronto novel, an interesting perspective on cross cultural relationships, and the experience of re-connecting with your faith.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  Just after I finished this book, I saw a person on the TTC reading it.  He looked up to get off at his station and saw me looking at him.  He said, 'this is an amazing book'.  I said, "I know, I just finished it'.  Its that kind of book - you need to tell someone how good it is, as you read it.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.  If you read one book that I recommend, read this one.  It is not too long.  It is not too depressing.  I thought that it was incredible, well written and a beautiful story to illustrate that life is a fine balance between hope and despair.

Days are still getting shorter

The advent of digital music libraries has introduced a Music Collector's Dilemma (MCD).  MCD:

The argument for ripping all the tracks is that your music library will be an exact reflection of your physical CD collection.  Also, I have heard some people imply that a true music collection must have every track by an artist, even if the track is clearly a
'hey wait - the recording console was getting that last jam. okay we have our ninth track!'

The T. and I have gone back and forth on the MCD.  But finally we have decided that we will only keep good tracks on the music library.  We have found, over the years, that we never ever listen to the B tracks.  And though hard drive space is cheap, my time is not.  I don't want to have to search through a list of tracks trying to find the Rolling Stones songs I actually like.

An advantage of TouchAmp is that it has a 'Dump' button.  Don't like a track, hit Dump.  It gets moved to a folder on our music drive called TA_Dump.  We can review it and then permanently delete it via PC.

My goal right now is to go through my growing World Music collection.  I love World Music but I am not a collector.  Just because a track is a great example of a regional Thai singing style, doesn't mean I will listen to it.  I'd like to get it to the point where I can just add folders of tracks that are regionally similar and have a few hours of great listening. 

On Friday we dumped over a Gig of bad music! 

An excellent blog to read is Global Voices.  The goal of this blog is to diversify the on-line conversation.

Sadly, most traditional media fails to report extensively on international issues.  Blogs have become a great vehicle for people in countries around the world to report on local issues.  Global Voices is composed of a team of global 'editors' who review blogs in their region.  Each editor posts interesting articles from a variety of blogs.

For example, when was the last time you heard news on Nepal from a major media outlet?  Well, you should have because there has been extensive civil unrest in Nepal since several members of their royal family were murdered.  In my one month of reading, Global Voices has already linked to several bloggers in Nepal. 

I highly recommend you add Global Voices to your RSS reader.

The T. just posted one of his current projects.  Its called TouchAmp and it has brought great joy to our livingroom. 

We can now play music from our music library using an (almost) free touch screen interface.  We have a left over PalmPilot on our bookshelf connected to a mini-ITX PC that has our music library on its hard drive.

With the TouchAmp app, I can create and control a playlist.  For example, I create a workout playlist from our library that I use for my workout in the morning.  If I've picked a song that's too slow then I can move forward to the next one.  I can also add songs at the end if my playlist ran short. 

I love it because:
1. No PC monitor in our livingroom.  I look at a PC all day.  I don't want to see one when I'm listening to Arcade Fire.
2. I can control the playlist without leaving the room.

To me, a good playlist is the key to a good time.  In fact, the T. and I now compete on who can create the best playlist.  We take turns on picking tracks and trying to find great song combinations.