Books

Sometimes I get asked to peer-review book proposals and also academic paper proposals. It is interesting because then I get the chance to look at breaking research- the books of the future.
Sometimes, it's like internships- you don't get paid; but then people peer-review your own stuff, so it's a gentlewoman's agreement in a sense.
Today, however, I have booty- I have been paid in books!
A parcel arrived containing The Sound of Tomorrow: how electronic music was smuggled into the mainstream, by Mark Brend; Understanding Records: a field guide to recording practice by Jay Hodgson; and Undercurrents: the hidden wiring of modern music, by the Wire magazine.
These will lie alongside the trashy detective novels from the British Heart Foundation shop (currently Val McDairmid) and the half-consumed Trollopes, half-read Private Eyes and copious press cuttings until I have completely digested everything and become
Intelligent.