up your architecture.

So when I was in New Orleans with Sam, Falcon took us on a long drive down Magazine Street in order to find a couple good local booksellers in the hopes that Sambo could dig up a couple of books on the wetlands and natural landforms here on the Coast. We ended up at the Garden District Book Shop in this place that kind of reminded me of one of the strange corral-type malls I've seen up in Minnesota but I happened upon a copy of a compendium of essays by Nick Hornby (author of About A Boy, High Fidelity, and most recently A Long Way Down) which are all about songs that have in some way influenced his life. Each of the 31 essays are an homage to the song about which he is writing. His unapologetic, and unabashed love for the songs comes through with each essay and I love the way he talks about them like they are friends rather than the words of the stranger. It's the kind of writing that doesn't make you nostalgic to hear the song, but rather search out your own.

Something I also found out recently is that McSweeny's put out an addendum version which features the majority of the songs on a CD which comes with really cool artwork. I think it's safe to say that I will be compiling my own in the near future. Stay tuned...