Ten pieces of great writing about listening

Various

With the long, slow death of the jewel case and CD booklet, it's become a lot harder to buy gifts for hardcore music fans. It's too impersonal to give an iTunes gift card, CDs are obsolete, and vinyl is often hard to track down. Plus there’s the whole question of figuring out someone else’s taste and knowing what they haven’t already heard. Here’s a safe bet, though: picking from one of the plenty of great books written about music each year. Below, 10 of the best from 2010 and 2011.