Image by LivePict, via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons

The mean­ing of the word “library” has nev­er been more ambigu­ous. When we can vir­tu­al­ly car­ry library-sized col­lec­tions of images, music, lit­er­a­ture and ref­er­ence data in our pock­ets, what are phys­i­cal libraries but muse­ums of a sort? Of course, from the point of view of librar­i­ans espe­cial­ly, this isn’t true in the least. Libraries are fortress­es of free speech, pub­lic edu­ca­tion, and “infor­ma­tion lit­er­a­cy” at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el. Rather than obso­lete or sec­ondary, they may be more nec­es­sary than ever.

On a larg­er view both of these things are true. For mil­lions of peo­ple, phys­i­cal libraries have become sec­ondary and will remain so, but they also remain com­mu­ni­ty resources of para­mount impor­tance. As Ted Mills post­ed here in the sum­mer of 2015, Talk­ing Heads front­man, “poly­math and all-around swell per­son David Byrne” affirmed that lat­ter sta­tus of the phys­i­cal library when he leant out 250 books on music from his per­son­al library to them­selves be leant out at a library host­ed by the 22nd annu­al Melt­down Fes­ti­val and London’s Poet­ry Library.

“I love a library,” wrote Byre in his own Guardian essay announc­ing the project.

I grew up in sub­ur­ban Bal­ti­more and the sub­urbs were not a par­tic­u­lar­ly cos­mopoli­tan place. We were des­per­ate to know what was going on in the cool places, and, giv­en some sug­ges­tions and direc­tion, the library was one place where that wider excit­ing world became avail­able. In my lit­tle town, the library also had vinyl that one could check out and I dis­cov­ered avant-garde com­posers such as Xenakis and Mes­si­aen, folk music from var­i­ous parts of the world and even some pop records that weren’t get­ting much radio play in Bal­ti­more. It was tru­ly a for­ma­tive place.

Hav­ing grown up in the DC sub­urbs in the years before the inter­net, I can relate, and would add the impor­tance of local music stores and afford­able all-age venues. But Byrne has nev­er stayed tied to the media of his youth. Dur­ing his sev­er­al decades as a cul­tur­al crit­ic and arts edu­ca­tor, he has made ecu­meni­cal use of mun­dane new tech­nolo­gies to inter­ro­gate the sta­tus of oth­er old­er forms. One recent project, for exam­ple, con­sist­ed of a 96-page book and 20-minute DVD about his exper­i­ments in Pow­er­Point art. One of the ques­tions raised by the project, writes Veronique Vienne, is whether the book is “an anti­quat­ed cul­tur­al arti­fact” in an age of hyper­vi­su­al­iza­tion.

Clear­ly for Byrne him­self, the answer is no, and that answer is close­ly con­nect­ed to the ques­tion of com­mod­i­fi­ca­tion vers­es open access, whether through libraries or free online archives. “The idea of read­ing books for free,” he writes, “didn’t kill the pub­lish­ing busi­ness, on the con­trary, it cre­at­ed nations of lit­er­ate and pas­sion­ate read­ers. Shared inter­ests and the impulse to cre­ate.” Byrne’s library reflects a life­time of shared inter­ests and cre­ative inspi­ra­tion. He him­self has spent his life writ­ing about music in spite of the clever max­im that such a ven­ture is like “danc­ing about archi­tec­ture.” It is, he writes, “stim­u­lat­ing and inspir­ing nonethe­less.”

In the spir­it of shar­ing infor­ma­tion and cham­pi­oning libraries, Brain Pick­ings’ Maria Popo­va pub­lished a list of near­ly all of the titles in Byrne’s lend­ing library, with links to pub­lic library edi­tions near you through World­Cat. Find the full list below, cour­tesy of David Byrne’s site, and see Brain Picking’s list and short essay here.

1. 40 Watts from Nowhere: A Jour­ney into Pirate Radio by Sue Car­pen­ter
2. A div­ina come­dia dos Mutantes by Car­los Cal­a­do
3. A Pho­to­graph­ic Record: 1969–1980 by Mick Rock
4. A Thelo­nious Monk: Study Album by Lionel Grig­son
5. A Whole Room for Music: A Short Guide to the Bal­four Build­ing Music Mak­ers’ Gallery by Helene La Rue
6. Acoustic Ter­ri­to­ries: Sound Cul­ture and Every­day Life by Bran­don Labelle
7. Acoustics for Radio and Tele­vi­sion Stu­dios by Christo­pher Gil­ford
8. Africa Dances by Geof­frey Gor­er
9. African Music: A People’s Art by Fran­cis Bebey
10. African Rhythm and African Sen­si­bil­i­ty by John Miller Cher­noff
11. Afro-Amer­i­can Folk Songs by H.E. Kre­hbiel
12. AfroPop! An Illus­trat­ed Guide to Con­tem­po­rary African Music by Sean Bar­low & Ban­ning Eyre
13. All You Need to Know About the Music Busi­ness by Don­ald S. Pass­man
14. Aloud: Voic­es from the Nuy­or­i­can Poets Cafè by Miguel Algar­in & Bob Hol­man
15. An Illus­trat­ed Trea­sury of Songs by Nation­al Gallery of Art
16. And They All Sang: Adven­tures of an Eclec­tic Disc Jock­ey by Studs Terkel
17. Arranged Mar­riage by Wal­lace Berman & Robert Watts
18. Audio Cul­ture: Read­ings in Mod­ern Music by Cristoph Cox & Daniel Warn­er
19. Austin City Lim­its: 35 Years in Pho­tographs by Scott New­ton & Ter­ry Lick­ona
20. Bacha­ta: A Social His­to­ry of a Domini­can Pop­u­lar Music by Deb­o­rah Paci­ni Her­nan­dez
21. Ban­dal­ism: The Rock Group Sur­vival Guide by Julian Ridg­way
22. Beats of the Heart: Pop­u­lar Music of the World by Jere­my Marre & Han­nah Charl­ton
23. Best Music Writ­ing 2001 by Nick Horn­by & Ben Schafer
24. Best Music Writ­ing 2002 by Jonathan Lethem & Paul Bres­nick
25. Best Music Writ­ing 2003 by Matt Groen­ing & Paul Bres­nick
26. Best Music Writ­ing 2006 by Mary Gait­skill & Daphne Carr
27. Best Music Writ­ing 2007 by Robert Christ­gau & Daphne Carr
28. Bicy­cle Diaries by David Byrne
29. Black Music of Two Worlds by John Storm Roberts
30. Black Rhythms of Peru: Reviv­ing African Musi­cal Her­itage in the Black Pacif­ic by Hei­di Car­olyn Fei­d­man
31. Blues Gui­tar: The Men Who Made the Music by Jas Obrecht
32. Bossa Nova: The Sto­ry of the Brazil­ian Music that Seduced the World by Ruy Cas­tro
33. Bots­ford Col­lec­tion of Folk Songs Vol­ume 1 by Flo­rence Hud­son Bots­ford
34. Bots­ford Col­lec­tion of Folk Songs Vol­ume 2 by Flo­rence Hud­son Bots­ford
35. Bound for Glo­ry by Woody Guthrie
36. Bour­bon Street Black: The New Orleans Black Jazzman by Jack V Buerkle & Dan­ny Bark­er
37. Brazil­ian Pop­u­lar Music and Cit­i­zen­ship by Idel­ber Ave­lar & Christo­pher Dunn
38. Bru­tal­i­ty Gar­den: Trop­i­calla and the Emer­gence of a Brazil­ian Coun­ter­cul­ture by Christo­pher Dunn
39. Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise by David Rothen­berg
40. But Beau­ti­ful: A Book About Jazz by Geoff Dyer
41. Can­cioneiro Vini­cius De Moraes by Orfeu
42. Cap­tur­ing Sound: How Tech­nol­o­gy Has Changed Music by Mark Katz
43. Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Mar­ley by Tim­o­thy White
44. Cham­bers by Alvin Luci­er & Dou­glas Simon
45. Chin­aber­ry Side­walks: A Mem­oir by Rod­ney Crow­ell
46. Chris Stein/Negative: Me, Blondie and the Advent of Punk by Deb­o­rah Har­ry, Glenn O’Brien & Shep­ard Fairey
47. Clan­des­ti­no: In Search of Manu Chao by Peter Cul­shaw
48. Clothes Music Boys by Viv Alber­tine
49. Coci­nan­do! Fifty Years of Latin Cov­er Art by Pablo Ygle­sias
50. Con­jun­to by John Dyer
51. Con­ver­sa­tions with Glenn Gould by Jonathan Cott
52. Con­vers­ing with Cage by Richard Koste­lan­etz
53. Copy­rights & Copy­wrongs: The Rise of Intel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty and How it Threat­ens Cre­ativ­i­ty by Siva Vaid­hyanathan
54. Danc­ing in Your Head: Jazz, Blues, Rock and Beyond by Gene San­toro
55. Desert Plants: Con­ver­sa­tions with Twen­ty-Three Amer­i­can Musi­cians by Wal­ter Zim­mer­man
56. Dic­cionario de Jazz Lati­no by Nat Che­di­ak
57. Dic­cionario del Rock Lati­no by Nat Che­di­ak
58. Dri­ving Through Cuba: Rare Encoun­ters in the Land of Sug­ar Cane and Rev­o­lu­tion by Car­lo Gebler
59. Drum­ming at the Edge of Mag­ic: A Jour­ney into the Spir­it of Per­cus­sion by Mick­ey Hart & Jay Stevens
60. Essays on Music by Theodor W. Adorno
61. Exper­i­men­tal Music: Cage and Beyond by Michael Nyman
62. Fair Use: The Sto­ry of the Let­ter U and the Numer­al 2 by Neg­a­tiv­land
63. Fela Fela: This Bitch of a Life by Car­los Moore
64. Fetish & Fame: The 1997 MTV Video Music Awards by David Fel­ton
65. Fin­ish­ing the Hat: Col­lect­ed Lyrics (1954–1981) with Atten­dant Com­ments, Prin­ci­ples, Here­sies, Grudges, Whines and Anec­dotes by Stephen Sond­heim
66. Folk and Tra­di­tion­al Music of the West­ern Con­ti­nents by Bruno Net­tl
67. Folk Song Style and Cul­ture by Alan Lomax
68. Folk: The Essen­tial Album Guide by Neal Walers & Bri­an Mans­field
69. For­mal­ized Music: Thought and Math­e­mat­ics in Com­po­si­tion by Ian­nis Xenakis
70. Fotografie in Musi­ca by Gui­do Harari
71. Gen­e­sis of a Music by Har­ry Partch
72. Give my Regards to Eighth Street: Col­lect­ed Writ­ings of Mor­ton Feld­man by B.H. Fried­man
73. Graviko­rds, Whirlies, & Pyro­phones: Exper­i­men­tal Musi­cal Instru­ments by Bart Hop­kin
74. Guia Esen­cial De La Sal­sa by Jose Manuel Gomez
75. Gui­tar Zero: The New Musi­cian and the Sci­ence of Learn­ing by Gary Mar­cus
77. Hear­ing Cul­tures: Essays on Sound, Lis­ten­ing, and Moder­ni­ty by Veit Erl­mann
78. Here Come the Reg­u­lars: How to Run a Record Label on a Shoe­string Bud­get by Ian Ander­son
79. He Stopped Lov­ing Her Today: George Jones, Bil­ly Sher­rill and the Pret­ty-Much Total­ly True Sto­ry of the Mak­ing of the Great­est Coun­try Record of All Time by Jack Isen­hour
80. Hip Hop: The Illus­trat­ed His­to­ry of Break Danc­ing, Rap Music and Graf­fi­ti by Steven Hager
81. Hit Men by Fred­er­ic Dan­nen
82. Hitsville: The 100 Great­est Rock ‘n’ Roll Mag­a­zines 1954–1968 by Alan Betrock
83. Homo Aes­theti­cus: Where Art Comes From and Why by Ellen Dis­sanayake
84. Hot Stuff: Dis­co and the Remak­ing of Amer­i­can Cul­ture by Alice Echols
85. How Music Works: The Sci­ence and Psy­chol­o­gy of Beau­ti­ful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Bea­t­les and Beyond by John Pow­ell
86. Hun­gry for Heav­en: Rock and Roll and the Search for Redemp­tion by Steve Turn­er
87. I Have Seen the End of the World and it Looks Like This by Bob Schnei­der
88. I’ll Take You There Mavis Sta­ples: The Sta­ple Songers, and the March Up Freedom’s High­way by Greg Kot
89. In Pur­suit of Silence: Lis­ten­ing for Mean­ing in a World of Noise by George Prochnik
90. Indi­an Music by B. Chai­tanya Deva
91. It Ain’t Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues by Paul Myers
92. Japan­ese Music and Musi­cal Instru­ments by William P. Malm
93. Javanese Game­lan by Jen­nifer Lind­say
94. Jazz by William Clax­ton
95. Knit­ting Music by Michael Dorf
96. La Travi­a­ta: In Full Score by Giuseppe Ver­di
97. Lau­rie Ander­son by John How­ell
98. Leon Geico: Cron­i­ca de un Sueno by Oscar Finkel­stein
99. Lex­i­con of Musi­cal Invec­tive by Nico­las Slonim­sky
101. Light Strings: Impres­sions of the Gui­tar by Ralph Gib­son & Andy Sum­mers
102. Lis­ten Again: A Momen­tary His­to­ry of Pop Music by Eric Weis­bard
103. Lis­ten­ing Through the Noise: the Aes­thet­ics of Exper­i­men­tal Elec­tron­ic Music by Joan­na Demers
104. Lis­ten to This by Alex Ross
105. Look, I Made a Hat: Col­lect­ed Lyrics (1981–2011) with Atten­dant Com­ments, Ampli­fi­ca­tions, Dog­mas, Harangues, Digres­sions, Anec­dotes and Mis­cel­lany by Stephen Sond­heim
106. Love Goes to Build­ings on Fire: Music Made New in New York City in the ’70s by Will Her­mes
107. Love in Vain: The Life and Leg­end of Robert John­son by Allen Green­berg
108. Love Saves the Day: A His­to­ry of Amer­i­can Dance Music Cul­ture by Tim Lawrence
109. Low by Hugo Wilck­en
110. Luck­ing Out: My Life Get­ting Down and Semi-dirty in Sev­en­ties New York by James Wol­cott
111. Macum­ba: The Teach­ings of Maria-Jose, Moth­er of the Gods by Serge Bram­ly
112. Man­go Mam­bo by Adal
113. Mas­ters of Con­tem­po­rary Brazil­ian Song: MPB 1965–1985 by Charles Per­rone
114. Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glam­our, Rock and Roll by Steven Kash­er
115. Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Hel­lu­va Ride with Tom­my James and the Shon­dells by Tom­my James
116. Miles: The Auto­bi­og­ra­phy by Miles Davis with Quin­cy Troupe
117. Min­ger­ing Mike: The Amaz­ing Career of an imag­i­nary Soul Super­star by Dori Hadar
118. Mis­ter Jel­ly Roll: The For­tunes of Jel­ly Roll Mor­ton, New Orleans Cre­ole and “Inven­tor of Jazz” by Alan Lomax
119. Mix Tape: The Art of Cas­sette Cul­ture by Thurston Moore
120. Music by Paul Bowles
121. Music and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion by Ter­ence McLaugh­lin
122. Music and Glob­al­iza­tion: Crit­i­cal Encoun­ters by Bob W. White
123. Music and the Brain: Stud­ies in the Neu­rol­o­gy of Music by Mac­Don­ald Critch­ley & R. A. Hen­son
124. Music and the Mind by Antho­ny Storr
125. Music and Trance: A The­o­ry of the Rela­tions between Music and Pos­ses­sion by Gilbert Rouget
126. Music Cul­tures of the Pacif­ic, The Near East, and Asia by William P. Malm
128. Music in Cuba by Ale­jo Car­pen­tier
129. Music, Lan­guage and the Brain by Anirud­dh D. Patel
130. Musi­ca Cubana Del Arey­to a la Nue­va Tro­va by Dr. Cristo­bal Diaz Ayala
131. Musi­cal Instru­ments of the World: An Illus­trat­ed Ency­clo­pe­dia with More than 4,000 Orig­i­nal Draw­ings by Ruth Midge­ly
132. Musi­cophil­ia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliv­er Sacks
133. My Music by Susan D Crafts, Daniel Cav­ic­chi & Charles Keil
134. New York Noise: Art and Music from the New York Under­ground 1978–88 by Stu­art Bak­er
135. Noise: A Human His­to­ry of Sound & Lis­ten­ing by David Hendy
136. Noise: The Polit­i­cal Econ­o­my of Music by Jacques Attali
137. Nota­tions by John Cage
138. Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambi­ent Sound and Imag­i­nary Worlds by David Toop
139. On Son­ic Art by Trevor Wishart
140. Opera 101: A Com­plete Guide to Learn­ing and Lov­ing the Opera by Fred Plotkin
141. Patron­iz­ing The Arts by Mar­jorie Gar­ber
142. Per­fect­ing Sound For­ev­er: An Aur­al His­to­ry of Record­ed Music by Greg Mil­ner
143. Pet Shop Boys: Lit­er­al­ly by Chris Heath
144. Pop­u­lar Musics of the Non-West­ern World: An Intro­duc­to­ry Sur­vey by Peter Manuel
145. The Pow­er of Music: Pio­neer­ing Dis­cov­er­ies in the Sci­ence of Song by Ele­na Mannes
146. Pre­sent­ing Celia Cruz by Alex­is Rodriguez-Duarte
147. Psy­chot­ic Reac­tions and Car­bu­re­tor Dung by Lester Bangs
148. Queens of Havana: The Amaz­ing Adven­tures of the Leg­endary Anacaona, Cuba’s First All-Girl Dance Band by Ali­cia Cas­tro
149. Recor­dan­do a Tito Puente: El Rey del Tim­bal by Steven Loza
150. Reflec­tions on Mace­don­ian Music: Past and Future by Dim­itri­je Buzarovs­ki
151. Remem­ber­ing the Future by Luciano Berio
152. Repeat­ed Takes: A Short His­to­ry of Record­ing Music and Its Effect on Music by Michael Chanan
153. Rev­o­lu­tion in the Head: The Bea­t­les Records and the Six­ties by Ian Mac­don­ald
154. Rhythm & Blues in New Orleans by John Broven
155. Rock ‘n’ Roll is Here to Pay: The His­to­ry of Pol­i­tics in the Music Indus­try by Steve Shap­ple & Reebee Garo­fa­lo
156. Rock Archives by Michael Ochs
157. Rock Images: 1970–1990 by Claude Gassian
158. Rock Lives: Pro­files and Inter­views by Tim­o­thy White
159. Sal­sa Guide­book for Piano & Ensem­ble by Rebe­ca Mauleon
160. Sal­sa: The Rhythm of Latin Music by Ger­ard Sheller
161. Sal­si­ol­o­gy: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evo­lu­tion of Sal­sa in New York City by Ver­non W. Bog­gs
162. Sam­ba by Alma Guiller­mo­pri­eto
163. Son­ic Trans­ports: New Fron­tiers in Our Music by Cole Gagne
164. Son­ic War­fare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecol­o­gy of Fear by Steve Good­man
165. Souled Amer­i­can: How Black Music Trans­formed White Cul­ture by Kevin Phin­ney
166. Sound­ing New Media: Immer­sion and Embod­i­ment in the Arts and Cul­ture by Frances Dyson
167. Sound­ings by Neu­berg­er Muse­um
168. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bay­ous by John Broven
169. Spaces Speak, Are You Lis­ten­ing: Expe­ri­enc­ing Aur­al Archi­tec­ture by Bar­ry Bless­er & Lin­da-Ruth Salter
170. Spir­it Ris­ing: My Life, My Music by Angelique Kid­jo
171. Star­mak­ing Machin­ery: The Odyssey of an Album by Geof­frey Stokes
172. Stock­hausen: Con­ver­sa­tions with the Com­pos­er by Jonathan Cott
173. Stolen Moments: Con­ver­sa­tions with Con­tem­po­rary Musi­cians by Tom Schn­abel
174. Stomp­ing the Blues by Albert Mur­ray
175. Tan­go: The Art His­to­ry of Love by Robert Far­ris Thomp­son
176. Text-Sound Texts by Richard Koste­lan­etz
177. The ABCs of Rock by Melis­sa Duke Mooney
178. The Agony of Mod­ern Music by Hen­ry Pleas­ants
179. The Anthro­pol­o­gy of Music by Alan P. Mer­ri­am
180. The Art of Ask­ing: How I Learned to Stop Wor­ry­ing and Let Peo­ple Help by Aman­da Palmer
181. The Bea­t­les: Record­ing Ses­sions by Mark Lewisohn
182. The Book of Drugs: A Mem­oir by Mike Dougher­ty
183. The Brazil­ian Sounds: Sam­ba, Bossa Nova, and the Pop­u­lar Music of Brazil by Chris McGowan & Ricar­do Pes­san­ha
184. The Faber Book of Pop by Hanif Kureishi & Jon Sav­age
185. The Great Ani­mal Orches­tra: Find­ing the Ori­gins of Music in the World’s Wild Places by Bernie Krause
186. The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau
187. The Kacham­ba Broth­ers’ Band: A Study of Neo-Tra­di­tion­al Music in Malawi by Ger­hard Kubik
188. The Last Hol­i­day: A Mem­oir by Gil Scott-Heron
189. The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin Amer­i­can Music on the Unit­ed States by John Storm Roberts
190. The Life and Times of Lit­tle Richard: The Quasar of Rock by Charles White
191. The Merge Records Com­pan­ion: A Visu­al Discog­ra­phy of the First Twen­ty Years by Merge Records
192. The Music Instinct by Philip Ball
193. The Music of Brazil by David P. Apple­by
194. The Mys­tery of Sam­ba: Pop­u­lar Music and the Nation­al Iden­ti­ty in Brazil by Her­mano Vian­na
195. The New Woman Poems: A Trib­ute to Mer­cedes Sosa by Nestor Rodriguez Lacoren
196. The Per­former Pre­pares by Robert Cald­well
197. The Ratio­nal and Social Foun­da­tions of Music by Max Weber
198. The Record: Con­tem­po­rary Art and Vinyl by Trevor Schoon­make
199. The Record­ing Angel: Music, Records and Cul­ture from Aris­to­tle to Zap­pa by Evan Eisen­berg
200. The Rest is Noise: Lis­ten­ing to the Twen­ti­eth Cen­tu­ry by Alex Ross
201. The Rolling Stone Inter­views: The 1980s by Var­i­ous
202. The Shape of Things to Come: Prophe­cy and the Amer­i­can Voice by Greil Mar­cus
203. The Sound Book: The Sci­ence of the Son­ic Won­ders of the World by Trevor Cox
204. The Sun and the Drum: African Roots in Jamaican Folk Tra­di­tion by Leonard Bar­rett
205. The Think­ing Ear by R. Mur­ray Schafer
206. The Tra­di­tion­al Music of Japan by Kishibe Shi­geo
207. The Tri­umph of Music: The Rise of Com­posers, Musi­cians and Their Art by Tim Blan­ning
208. The Veil of Silence by Dju­ra
209. The Wilco Book by Dan Nadel
210. This Busi­ness of Music: The Defin­i­tive Guide to the Music Indus­try by M. William Krasilovsky & Sid­ney Shemel
211. This is Your Brain on Music: The Sci­ence of Human Obses­sion by Daniel J. Lev­itin
212. Through Music to Self by Peter Michael Hamel
213. West African Rhythms for Drum­set by Roy­al Har­ti­gan
214. What Good are the Arts? by John Carey
215. White Bicy­cles: Mak­ing Music in the 1960’s by Joe Boyd
216. Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Pho­to­graph­ic His­to­ry 1955–Present by Gail Buck­land
218. Whose Music? A Soci­ol­o­gy of Musi­cal Lan­guages by John Shep­ard, Phil Vir­d­en, Gra­ham Vul­liamy, Trevor Wishart
219. Why is This Coun­try Danc­ing: A One-Man Sam­ba to the Beat of Brazil by John Krich
220. Woody Guthrie: A Life by Joe Klein
221. The Rough Guide to World Music: Latin and North Amer­i­ca, Caribbean, India, Asia, and Pacif­ic: An A‑Z of the Music, Musi­cians and Discs by Simon Broughton & Mark Elling­ham
222. The Rough Guide to World Music: Sal­sa to Souk­ous, Cajun to Calyp­so by Simon Broughton, Mark Elling­ham, David Mud­dy­man & Richard Tril­lo
223. World: The Essen­tial Album Guide by Adam McGov­ern
224. Yakety Yak: The Mid­night Con­fes­sions and Rev­e­la­tions of Thir­ty-Sev­en Rock Stars and Leg­ends by Scott Cohen

Relat­ed Con­tent:

David Byrne’s Per­son­al Lend­ing Library Is Now Open: 250 Books Ready to Be Checked Out

David Byrne & Neil deGrasse Tyson Explain the Impor­tance of an Arts Edu­ca­tion (and How It Strength­ens Sci­ence & Civ­i­liza­tion)

David Byrne: How Archi­tec­ture Helped Music Evolve

Josh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at @jdmagness