The Year on iPod

Our current digital music library consists of 13,249 songs (52.05 GB).
3,596 songs (14.51 GB) were added in 2005, prompting the further edition of a 120 GB external hard drive.

Some notable acquisitions:

- The entire catalog of The Pixies. WordGirl HATES the Pixies. Wonder why I picked that up?
- Lots of Ray Charles, particularly the Genius & Soul box set. Must be the movie's influence.
- Stevie Wonder's box set. WordGirl LOVES Stevie. I bought it for her anyway.
- Tons of The Who. I went through a major Who jones this year, and satisfied it with a bunch of classic stuff when their catalog finally went digital at iTunes.
- The U2 digital box set. We bought this when I got WordGirl her U2 iPod. EVERYTHING the band has done up through the new one with "Vertigo". Even WG maxed out on Bono by this point.
- A whole bunch of early Frank Zappa. WG's developing a taste for freak rock, and Apostrophe knocked her out (good taste in music and in men, that one).
- A ton of blues, particularly from the 40s and 50s. Love me some blues, and this year marked my efforts to pull in some of the lesser lights, like Roosevelt Sykes, Floyd Price, Little Milton, and Taj Mahal. All blues masters who deserve a much wider listening audience.

Plus the usual array of Teaching Company courses. We're currently working through Greek Tragedy, Victorian Britain, Classic American Literature, and Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition. They've even gotten with it and offered direct digital downloads at a reduced price.

I was also treated to the spectacle last night of WG teaching a 12-yr-old boy how to use his new iPod. Doesn't get any better than that.