Byline: Reviewed by John Clare

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die Edited by Robert Dimery (ABC Books, $65) THERE is one area of our lives we might feel free to expound on and be confident of an attentive ear: our record collections. My collection in the area of pop/rock/reggae/dance etc is small but they are all in here except Tackhead. Oh, and I have the wrong album by the Cars. I love this book, not just because it is good-looking and has a great body: it tells me I have good taste. OK, now you can talk about yours. Because your collection in this area is much bigger than mine, you will have more strikeouts; but more of yours will be in there. It will flatter you too. Yet you will probably have some cause to take issue with the critics. This book cannot fail. It is perfectly proportioned. It has great heft:...