books movies music

1. City of Thieves, David Benioff
2. The End of Faith, Sam Harris
3. Straight Man, Richard Russo
4. Henry Fool
5. Glengarry Glen Ross
6. Sling Blade
7. Albuquerque Lullaby, Dan Bern
8. This is the 21st Century, Marillion
9. The Joe Schmo Show
10. Ken Burns’ Baseball

1. Hiking along the coast in Nova Scotia
2. The King’s Speech
3. Taking a class on western films
4. Zeitoun, David Eggers
5. Planning trips
6. Snowshoeing on the lake
7. Playing Mexican Train Dominoes with my family
8. Walking my dog
9. Riding my bike 28 miles to eat breakfast
10. Preparing my old legs to jog 6 miles

1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel (song and album!)
2. The Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling
3. Arrested Development
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
5. Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
6. Pickin’ Up The Pieces, Fitz and the Tantrums (album)
7. Moulin Rouge!
8. Pushing Daisies
9. The Little Mermaid
10. Cinema Paradiso
11. Parks and Recreation

read about my discovery of modern communication and the design genius of Kate’s Blimp Cat Studios in the Magpie Blog!

1. Jeans (from Jnco to James, I’ve loved them all)
2. Steak (thick cut, rib-eye, butter, A1 on the side)
3. Italian movies (The Conformist, Blow Up, Caro Diario)
4. Bernice Bobs Her Hair^W and all the short stories of  F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
5. Paul Simon’s Graceland album
6. Pearl Jam (I am serious, ages 12 – 20)
7. The Wonder Years^W
8. The Baby-Sitter’s Club #1 /Sweet Valley High #1: Double Love books (let’s be honest, they are the same thing)
9. Summer Camp
10. Dracula (Bram Stoker’s, Coppola’s, Sesame Street‘s)

1. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
2. There Will Be Blood
3. The Fragile, Nine Inch Nails
4. the smell of new pointe shoes
5. “When the Stars Go Blue” Ryan Adams
6. Remarks of Senator Barack Obama at the New Hampshire primary, Jan. 8, 2008
7. The Big Lebowski
8. Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos
9. A Single Man
10. an empty dance studio

1. Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan
2. “A Perfect Day”, Lou Reed^W
3. Harold and Maude
4. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, David Bowie
5. All Things Must Pass, George Harrison
6. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
7. “Bonzo’s Montreux,” Led Zeppelin
8. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
9. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
10. The Shawshank Redemption

no one ever said that inspirations don’t change with time and mood; see Danielle’s July list; it’s similar, but different! (and no one ever said you can only submit one list! got something else? send it in!)

1. The Xanth^W Series, Piers Anthony
2. Footloose
3. Stomp
4. “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson^W
5. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
6. Fight Club: A Novel, Chuck Palahniuk
7. Christ of Saint John of the Cross^W, Salvador Dali^W
8. The Office: The Complete BBC Collection
9. Derren Brown
10. Naomi Klein

Christ of Saint John of the Cross, Salvador Dali

1. Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex * But Were afraid To Ask (Watch it now!)
2. E.E. Cummings^W‘ poem Self-Excoriation 1, 2, and 3.
3. The Revolution of Everyday Life, Raoul Vaneigem (Read it for free; just follow the link!)
4. “Nashville Blues,” Doc Watson
5. Days of Heaven
6. Patti Smith is a new fascination after reading Just Kids
7. Five Easy Pieces
8. Lolita, Vladimir Nobokov
9. The entire album of Graceland by Paul Simon has saved my life more than once. It can make the worst day better.
10. Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer

My BEST reads:

1. Hiroshima, John Hershey
2. Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
3. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson
4. Rose Daughter, Robin McKinley
5. The Postmistress, Sarah Blake
6. The Help, Kathryn Stockett

I DISLIKED reading:

1. Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney (egotist!)
2. Clapton: The Autobiography (awful! I didn’t want to know!!)

I WANT to read:

1. Horse Heaven, Jane Smiley
2. The Venus Fixers, Ilaria Dagnini Brey

1. Howard Roarke from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand^W
2. Iceland
3. “The Birth and Death of a Day,” Explosions in the Sky
4. The Moon
5. Fogged up Car Windows at 4 am
6. Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury
7. Two legs to walk with
8. Ice cream
9. Road Trips
10. Water

“1,2,3, and 6 are highly recommended.  And as the teacher in Perks of Being a Wallfower said to Charlie when he handed him The Fountainhead: “Be a filter, not a sponge”