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. The Best of The Guess Who
2. Jethro Tull, watching Ian Anderson rock on the flute with one leg
3. Andrea Bocelli, “Time to Say Goodbye“ …goosebumps everytime
4. Night, Eli Wiesel (listening to him makes me want to hop a flight and audit his classes)
5. Ayaan Hirsi Ali^W, it took guts for her to write books about Islam
6. Memento …over and over and over
7. Original Japanese Iron Chef
8. “Take a Little Piece of my Heart,” Janis Joplin^W
9. Creating dishes from food with the people who grew it around the table.
10. When a great chef asks, ”is there anything you don’t like? may I cook for you?”

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. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2. The Office (BBC!)
3. “Ojala,” Silvio Rodriguez^W
4. Made in Britain
5. Back To Black, Amy Winehouse
6. People Hold on, Eddie Kendricks
7. ”This is” series by M. Slasek
8. The Corner, David Simon & Edward Burns
9. ”Periodico de Ayer”  Hector Lavoe^W
10. Annie Hall

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”

1. Blue, Joni Mitchell
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
3. Sky Blue Sky, Wilco
4. The Midnight Organ Fight, Frightened Rabbit
5. One Nil, Neil Finn
6. Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
7. Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame, Charles Bukowski
8. The Princess Bride, S. Morgenstern
9. Amélie
10. Eagle vs. Shark

check out Flo’s really neat music project, Taking Requests!