Culture to Consume: W.H. Auden, James Bond boxed set, standing desks, French Jazz albums...

• I've been kind of crazy about reading the work of W.H. Auden lately. Not sure what opened this door for me, but I've been slowly reading his Collected Works, reading a biography of the poet, and listening to an audiobook of Alexander McCall Smith about his work. Where do these literary paths come from? So many of his poems I want to write about...later.
• After seeing the fairly terrible James Bond film, Spectre, over the weekend, I'm kind of thinking about buying this. Once, many years ago, my friends bought me the entire boxed set of all James Bond movies that had been made (this was around the year 2000) and I spent an entire week at home on vacation watching every single one of them. It was a week when I realized that most things in life can be found in a James Bond film (none of them profound). Not sure what happened to that boxed set (it was an old format that doesn't work anymore, I think) but it might be time to rewatch the entire oeuvre... at Christmas, we won't go anywhere and I can lay around on the sofa and watch all 23 films!
• I've been listening to these Jazz albums recommended by Les Inrocks. So far I've listened to more than half of them. I am loving Panorama Circus, Eric Seva and Virginie Teychene. For me, it's classical music in the morning and Jazz in the evening (with beer).
• I started using a standing desk a few years ago at work. Fewer headaches. More energy. No back pain at all. Also, when I have to sit for a meeting or something, it's so nice and feels so relaxing. Down side: I can't sit for more than 15-20 minutes now (anywhere) before getting restless and uncomfortable. Now that I am used to it, maybe it's time to spring for this version of the standing desk.

He's not as popular as Connery but I like Timothy Dalton as James Bond (I'm a child of the 80s)

My Home Workspace: Lonely Planet, knic-knacs and big dictionaries

A Japanese Kotatsu: we have one of these in our living room which is a dream!

I often change my workspace at home: I have an office but I tend to work in there for a few weeks at a time before moving to a new spot in the house. In the summer I often work in the kitchen or on the back balcony. In winter, I usually work in the living room because we have a Japanese kotatsu, a heated table with a blanket which is about the most favorite thing we own (though it's hardly what one could call stylish).

Lately, I've been working in my office though. And loving it. I can turn the music up, open the blinds and get some sun, turn the heater on at my feet (where the dog usually sleeps when I work in here). True, I only work from home one or two days a week this time of year but I so look forward to it (I'd work from home every day if I could).

A small sampling of what I see when I work at my desk

Which means I am constantly facing two small bookshelves which contain travel books, a few art books, some chachkis, dictionaries, and pictures. On the wall above I have maps: of the world, of Berlin, of Paris and the Tokyo subway system. I've got Latin American phrase books and Lithuanian language manuals, Chinese character flashcards (and a box of Japanese Kanji characters which I've never opened), Dr. Seuss, photo books of Tokyo, Shanghai and Montevideo, a collection of Kathe Kollwitz prints, books of Childe Hassam paintings, contemporary Chinese art, American Indian portraits by Karl Bodmer, a guide to the Rodin Museum of Paris (from 10 years ago), copies of Poetry Magazine, old Buddhist texts, a boxed collection of Woody Allen films from the 70s, old issues of Vie des Arts magazines, a wooden mask from Indonesia, an old worn out pocket Buddha from Laos (which I bought from a woman selling things on a blanket in Vientiane for like $2), a Tintin action figure, Papa Smurf, Frans Masereel wordless novels, books of poetry by Czeslaw Milosz and Ruth Stone, and guide books from Argentina, Sweden, Laos, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Malaysia, Tokyo and Bangkok.

And that's just what I see while I work each day: off to my left are many many more books. Too many (though I give lots of them away each year), all these mementos and memories of places I've lived or traveled, friends I have, things which represent countless small moments in my life.

I love my work space and will love it all the more once the nicer weather starts and I can open the balcony doors and smell the fresh air, the sounds of city life wafting up to the second floor.