HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING I've surfed a lot but have not been in a good position to host until now. COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE I've surfed everywhere from Tokyo to Freiburg. The experience of making friends and being generously hosted by locals is infinitely superior to staying in hostels.

Music: Regina Spektor, Ray LaMontagne, Cake, Cat Stevens, Elliott Smith, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Claire Lise, Jacques Brel, and Van Morrison, Josh Ritter, Kino, Trampled by Turtles, the Avett Brothers to name a few. Books: "The Language Instinct" by Stephen Pinker; "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" and "Seymour: An Introduction" by J.D. Salinger; "The Forsyte Saga" by John Galsworthy; "The End of the Affair" by Graham Greene; "Demons" and "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky; "War and Peace," "Anna Karenina," and "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy; short stories such as "A Joke," "The Opera Girl," and "Verochka" by Anton Chekhov; most any version of the Tristan legend; "The Portrait of a Lady" by Henry James; the poetry of Jacques Prevert and Victor Hugo; and so on.