Andrea Barrett
Voyage of the Narwhal

F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby

Ernest Hemingway
Sun Also Rises, A Moveable Feast, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, Complete Short Stories

Elmore Leonard
Stick, Ride the Rap

Herman Melville
Moby Dick, Benito Cereno [short story]

Kim Stanley Robinson
Mars Series [Red, Blue, Green Mars], Antarctica, Califonia [only I so far]

Dava Sobel
Longitude, Galileo's Daughter

music

Frederick Chopin
Nocturne No. 17 in B, opus 62 No.1, Nocturne No. 20 in C sharp minor, Prelude No. 15 in D flat ["Raindrop"]

Claude Debussy
Deux Arabesques, The Girl With the Flaxen Hair

Brian Eno
Music for Airports

Gustav Holst
The Planets

Erik Satie
Gymnopedie No. 3, Gnossienne No. 1-5

Vaughan Williams
Variation on a theme by Thomas Tallis, Greensleeves

wine

travel
Alaska
I can only speak for Sitka, but it is an amazine place...sunlight at midnight in the summer, sunrise at 3 a.m., endless forests, but raining 99 out of 100 days, James Michener stayed at the local college to write "Alaska"

Carribean
St. Thomas (despite the commercialism), St. John (eco-camping!), BVI (stay away from Tortolla, not worth it, but the Baths of Virgin Gourda is MUST SEE), snorkeling at Sapphire Beach, despite it being a resort, Cafe Wahoo in Red Hook

Germany
Fussen, Neuschwanstein, Munich

Iceland
Horse-back riding the tiny horses of Iceland, the Blue Lagoon despite the hype, touring Rekjavic (cuisine leaves something to be desired)

Ireland
Dingle, Blarney Castle (but don't kiss the stone!), the Burren

Italy
Florence & Fiesole (the Ponte Vecchio, cappucino near the Duomo, seeing the David), Rome (St. Peter's, 'pizza quattro fromaggio!')

UK & Scotland
Edinburgh, London, Loch Ness