What am I, 12? No, but I was somewhat reassured when a 76-year-old colleague said he and his twin brother still exchange birthday lists. Beautiful box sets (CD, Blu-ray) seem to come out around my birthday, presumably for the Christmas market, as my birthday is quite close. So if you miss getting something for my birthday, you can always try again for Christmas. Also included are previous years which have not been bought, yet. This is the first year I have ever opened up the list to the entire planet by posting it online. I could, of course, buy any of these myself but I tend not to buy anything new, relying on charity shops to dictate my taste (see barngains).
Tarkovsky (5 CD box set; £35)
I only found out about this the other day but it goes straight to the top of the list – a box set of soundtracks to five Andrei Tarkovsky films.
Days and Night in the Forest (4K Ultra HD and Blu-Ray; £30)
I have been trying to watch Satyajit Ray’s 1970 classic film legally or illegally (I once found a terrible quality copy online without subtitles) for years, and it is finally out on the Criterion label. Four friends venture out of the city into the countryside for a journey of self-discovery. From the director of the sublime Apu Trilogy.
Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings (39 CD box set; £110)
It’s possible I do have enough Dylan, no, really. Even though I didn’t buy – or receive – the recent box sets 1974 Live Recordings, or Bob Dylan at Budokan, or even last year’s Through the Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol. 18, 1956-1963 (however, I would warmly welcome any of them), I do love the raw sound of the 1976 tour, the second leg of Rolling Thunder, and positively need this set.
Spomenik Monument Database (book, £20)
Explores Yugoslavia’s historic and enigmatic endeavor into creating stunningly space-age abstract WWII monuments from 1960-1990.
Mark Jenkin: The Cornish Trilogy (3-disc Blu-ray set)
A journey through the edges of British cinema, Mark Jenkin: The Cornish Trilogy brings together Bait (2019), Enys Men (2023), and Rose of Nevada (2025) in a three disc Blu-ray collection that captures one of the most distinctive film-making voices of the century.
PREVIOUS YEARS WANTS
I really only ever need books, music and films but sometimes, often, I’ll desire something for so many years that I’ll end up not wanting it any more, but not in the case of the following:
• William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops (CD box set; £35)
• Meredith Monk: The Recordings (CD box set)
• Various Small Books: Referencing Various Small Books by Ed Ruscha (book)
• Barry Windsor-Smith – Monsters (graphic novel)
• Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska 82 (CD box set; £38)
• Twin Peaks Season 3: A Limited Event Series (Blu-ray box set; £35)
• Exiles – Josef Koudelka (Photography book)
• Look of the Book: Jackets, Covers and Art at the Edges of Literature – David Alworth and Peter Mendelsund (book)
• Modern Instances – Stephen Shore (book)
• Dwellings – Paul Oliver (Phaidon 2003 hardback edition)