Music:
cannonball adderly, modern jazz quartet, at the drive in, elvis costello, bela fleck, medeski martin and wood, the police, randy newman, ugly duckling, paul simon, martin sexton, outkast, sleater-kinney, steeley dan, the roots, thelonius monk
Books:
civilization and capitalism: 15th-18th centuries, europe and the people without history, bonfire of the vanities, the unbearable lightness of being, don quijote, sophie's choice, love in the time of cholera, the structure of scientific revolutions