I spent most of the day today with Melanie at Barnes & Noble on 66th Street on the Westside. We did step outside and walked to Columbus Circle for delicious sandwiches at Bouchon Bakery at the Time Warner Center as well as a free sampling of Illy lattes on the first floor. We also stopped by at Borders Bookstore where I decided to pick up my own copy of John Mayer’s Continuum instead of waiting for Wook to bring a copy of it on Friday.

Continuum – it feels like I’ve waited for this album since the end of 2004, when I had managed to play Heavier Things (his last album) on nonstop repeat for over a year. There were moments of relief, like when the limited edition live concert album As If was released in early 2005 and when the John Mayer Trio album Try! was released in late 2005. But they just weren’t as exciting as a whole new John Mayer album and speculation about Continuum being an incredible album intensified my anticipation. So now I have it and I’m listening to it right now. I’m already familiar with three of the songs on this 12-track album – Waiting on the World to Change, Gravity, and Vultures. I recognized Gravity on the season premiere of House (on Fox) last night and yelled out in excitement after hearing the first few notes of the song. It’s a very slow album, but I think I prefer a slow, blues-ish John Mayer to anything uptempo and pop-like. And don’t be quick to judge him right away – let his lyrics and beats grow on you. That’s what happened with Heavier Things, and I know Continuum will be the same way.

Melanie pointed me to a recent John Mayer interview in Rolling Stone magazine and it was nice to read about him. On being told by the head of Columbia Records that his new album had no singles-worthy songs, Mayer says he cried all day and “contemplated quitting the music business. ”

“‘I started looking up design schools online, because I was ready to go to design school,” says Mayer

Design school. Oh man – imagine John Mayer designing your band’s music album CDs. You can check out the article here.

And to make sure the day wasn’t a complete wash, I did organize the Barrel Library on our Backpackit site. These are mostly design books, but some are business self-help books and others are art history books as well. We hope to build a sizeable collection in the next year or so. Alright, time to make dinner – kimchi and tuna fried rice.