I have said this before. For good lyrics has to be Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan.
I totally second you on Umbrella - i love it to.

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The names Diana, but you can call me Di.

I did English & Philosophy at uni and it has changed my reading style a bit, but not so that I don't enjoy the reading. I can't stand Jordan or Goodkind now, despite loving them when I was younger ,not because of the writing style but because I can see how hopelessly underdone the characters are and that there's nothing behind the deranged plotlines. Now I can appreciate Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and GRRM and Guy Gavriel Kay in ways I couldn't before. So the degree had more effect on me than my writing did - but then I've been writing since I was 12 (nothing to show for it, woes) so I don't think I'd be consciously aware of it.

My father tells the story of one of his friends who did an English degree and who now works in publishing - she can't stand Tolkien at all now, rants about how his writing is stodgy and lacks femininity (hrm) and so on. I suspect she didn't get it in the first place.

Sometimes bad books are a comfort. Except for Eragon et al. They're just pure paper pain.

I prefer Bob Dylan covers, his voice is much too rough for me, although agreed the lyrics are excellent. One of the reasons I loved the ending of series Iforgetwhich of Battlestar Galactica was the interweaving of All Along The Watchtower through the final episode, so weird and unsettling and fantastic!