For the second Christmas in a row, my wife gave me a copy of Bicycle Diaries, David Byrne's wonderful essay collection and I've loved it both times. No she's not losing her mind. This year, the gift took the form of a newly released MP3 download of Byrne reading the book himself. As you may know, Byrne's voice is melodic, soothing and the issues he writes about (urban planning, history, art, architecture, travel, etc.) are timeless and perpetually interesting. As you might expect, Byrne has punctuated his audiobook with sound-scapes, audio clips and songs to enhance the experience. The book is available for download in its entirety or by individual chapter and may be listened to in one sitting or as one might approach a series of radio show podcasts. There is currently a special price for those whole chose to purchase the complete book and the t-shirt. The introduction is also available as a free download. Finally, one can read an excerpt of the book and play some complimentary audio-scapes at the same time on this web site. I wrote about the content of the book here last year, so I won't repeat myself, but I will mention that the audiobook is well worth the purchase even if you've already read the hardcopy.
The icing on the cake, of course, is the cool orange t-shirt with the silhouette of the bicycle rider designed by Bryne himself.
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