Being a bit of an introvert and interested in science and computers seems to have led me early on to an interest in SF. My current tastes in speculative fiction, however, defy genre boundaries and have more to do with introspection than with science of technology. My favourite authors include Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, and. I also appreciate the shorter fiction of Robert Silverberg and Roger Zelazny. I have not read fantasy very widely, save for Tolkien and Pratchett, but I quite enjoy some older authors, such as C.S. Lewis. More recent favourites include China Mieville and Jeff Vandermeer. For some more of the books I have read, take a look at my bookcase.

There is an almost constant soundtrack to my life. My hearing was recently (re-)tested and found 'excellent', which comes as a surprise as for the last fifteen years I've filled most of my waking hours with music and have over the years assiduosly courted damage to my ears using a number of walkmen and lastly an iPod.

Despite the strenuous efforts of my music teachers in school to dissuade me from classical music by insisting there was little more to it than the horribly over-valued Mozart, I have slowly come to appreciate it. My favourite instrument (which I do not know how to play, having dropped lessons at the age of 6) is the piano, but I find I also enjoy keyboard instruments of all periods. Overall I prefer, on the one hand Early Music and Baroque, on the other, (late) Romantic and Modern music. My favourite composers include J.S. Bach, Bartók, Bruckner, Debussy, Händel, Mahler, Stravinsky and Vivaldi. Although I still fail to understand or even enjoy most of Opera, I have found lieder and mélodies, especially those of Mahler, Hugo Wolf, Rikhard Strauss and Arnold Schönberg; and religious vocal music, mainly of the Baroque era, and especially protestant settings in German, although I am constantly discovering new medieval and renaissance, counter-reformation and Italian Baroque works I enjoy.

I also enjoy Jazz, mainly hard- and post-bop, especially from the 1950's onwards. I have, however, not yet progressed much beyond a gathering of usual suspects, such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Keith Jarrett.

As to popular music, I have always had a soft spot for tradition-conscious music making, coming to modern music having begun with the Beatles-records in my local library. The music of the 60's and the 70's is my first and abiding love:  Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, etc. In my late teens I went for britpop, which gradually broadened into an interest in British music of the 80's and 90's. From that period I retain Belle and Sebastian, Radiohead, The Smiths and Pulp. Along the way I also picked up a number of American acts, such as Wilco and The Mountain Goats. I keep a list of my record collection. There is also my last.fm, which represents all the music played on my computer since April 21st 2005 (but only some of what has been played on my iPod - and it naturally does not count the cds that have been played on my stereo).