In November, I received copies of two books by writer and walker Craig Mod. I've been a fan of his for many years, but these are the first of his books I've purchased. Shipping from Japan to Canada, on top of the cost of the books, was what had always stopped me in the past, but I do my best to support artists directly when I can so decided now was the time.

If you're not familiar with Mod, he's mostly known for his work in the book world. He also has a wonderful podcast on bookmaking called On Margins, though he might have killed that as it's been a long time since he's put out an episode. It's well worth listening to if you're into creating things.

Since Craig is a walker and a writer, these books are about walking.

Craig describes Kissa by Kissa as "a book about walking 1,000+km of the countryside of Japan along the ancient Nakasendō highway, the culture of pizza toast (pizza toast!), and mid-twentieth century Japanese cafés called kissaten."

Craig's books are gorgeous. Cloth-bound with debossed covers. The paper is lovely to touch and the photos and essays are wonderful:

Things Become Other Things is Craig's latest book. He describes it as "a 30 day walk in Japan. A memoir. Fishermen, foul-mouthed kids, and terrible miserable wonderful coffee."

You can purchase the fifth edition of Kissa by Kissa here. The first edition of TBOT is here. Both titles are cheaper for members of Craig's Special Projects. Those memberships are how Craig makes his living.

If you'd like a better overview of Craig's work, you can find it here.

Anecdote Alert

These books are the kinds of things I used to bring in for customers of my shop, Volver — beautiful items that I personally own and can recommend — before I stopped carrying non-records. This was an effort to spread awareness and get better prices for my customers by eliminating the cost of shipping.

I did this most successfully, book-wise, with Wendy Erskine's Dance Move, a brilliant collection of short stories which still hasn't been published in Canada. I can't recall how many copies I brought in (20 or so), but they all sold out and still no other shop in the city took it upon themselves to import copies.

I have no idea if Craig would be into this (offering me bulk, wholesale pricing), but I'd consider approaching him if enough Bell Ringers wanted me to try.

Love these Rolling Pin Paintings by Daniel Eatock.

Looks like he also had an unusual Black Friday Sale where he offered up paintings via barter for items he would send you links to. I love unorthodox approaches to commerce. I missed out on them but am quite taken with this one from that series:

Many more on Eatock's site.

Rewind is an Android and iOS app that allows you to explore music by year. You pick a year and it takes you to the year's highlights where you can sample tracks. At the bottom of each track are buttons to jump to music services where the track is available (Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube Music). I don't subscribe to any of those services, but when I clicked the Youtube Music icon, it just took me to the track on Youtube, which I could then play in full without payment.

For instance, I chose 1968, and was presented with these tracks, among many, many others:

It'll also show you the top 100 songs of the year and you can click on them to preview and then jump to it in the apps.

Pretty neat.

Travel Lemming creates travel guides by locals and experts.

They've put together an easy-to-use list of the 50 Best Places to Travel In 2025. You can filter the list by parts of the globe, season you plan to travel, or both. They write:

For 2025, we’re encouraging travelers to reject the AI travel planners Silicon Valley wants to shove down our throats. Instead, get your travel suggestions from the same place humans have since the beginning of time: other humans.

Last year's list focused on Slow Travel.

Love this shot of an eagle devouring a fish.

Matsubara also has some terrific landscape and moon shots on his site.

London-based painter Ian Robinson focuses on music, books, and collections.

More on Robinson's site.

I've recently started listening to the podcast Strangers On A Bench, where musician Tom Rosenthal approaches people and engages them in conversation. I've listened to seven episodes and it is downright lovely. My favorite so far is #7 — The Disappearing Cyclist, which I've embedded below. There is a bit of course language in this one and if you don't want that, try Episode 2, instead.

You can of course subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to listen to the end credits of each one, as Tom performs a song based on the conversation.

Many writers I know search for distraction-free solutions to getting their work done. Here's one that's new to me: The Micro Journal.

Designed by Un Kyu Lee in Italy and available directly from the creator. The version above is Revision 6, but there are others on his Tindie site.

Viera Babecova describes herself as a "Flower lover & arbitrary colourist & Vincent van Gogh's fan."

More of her stunning work can be seen on her Behance site.