Let it never be said that I am not anal retentive.
Several days ago, this particularly fascinating Canadian posted a link to his list of favorite movies. Of course, it go me thinking... what are my favorite movies? What's my all-time favorite? Why? What are my top twenty? Do I even have a top twenty? Should I even care?
Well, duh. Of course I should. For you see (and you should all pay attention here - for I'm about to tell you a James Fundamental), when the going gets tough... when things pile up... when there's a lot going on in my life [GRE, GRE Biology, billsbillsbills, new step-mother, great boyfriend, living-on-a-fault-line-within-site-of-an-active-volcano, cute neighbors, Southern blots] and the world [FMA, Kerry vs. Bush, Labour negotiations with Likud, Indonesian run-off, ICJ boos Israel, Darfur]... when there's so much I should be paying attention to... I turn my feeble little mind to Trivial Matters.
"Hmmm... What's my favorite movie?"
Well, I couldn't come up with one. I like many movies... but I can't find one that says, "Yes, this is the best one as far as I'm concerned."
Luckily, I can't say the same for books. Books have always been important to me - from The Sneetches and Other Stores and James and the Giant Peach to The God of Small Things and Interview with the Vampire. I've loved to read for as long as I can remember - though, quite frankly, I suck [I'M SLOW] at it. Thus, for no good reason whatsoever, I was easily able to come up with my favorite novels. I threw a few plays in there, too. Just... because.
PROCESSED TREE CARCASSES: JRU's Top Twenty-Six
1. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
2. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
3. The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
4. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
5. The Songs of Distant Earth, Arthur C. Clarke
6. Persuasion, Jane Austen
7. Contact, Carl Sagan
8. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
9. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
10. The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis
11. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
12. Animal Farm, George Orwell
13. Many Waters, Madeleine L’Engle
14. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
15. Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee
16. Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
17. Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
18. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
19. Macbeth, William Shakespeare
20. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
21. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
22. Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
23. Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis
24. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
25. Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
26. And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
Maybe I'll follow-up with a list of movies the next time another series of world and personal crises unfold...
Posted by James at July 12, 2004 09:46 PMMmm, good list. James: check out Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. If you like Jane Austen, you're almost sure to like O'Brian.
Posted by: poje at July 13, 2004 03:22 PMYes Richard, it is.
Posted by: Zach at July 13, 2004 01:54 PMI think I've read 16 of your favorites. I'm impressed that you could make a list at all; even if I had to name the best of the last four years it would be troublesome for me, but I may have to try now. Is God of Small Things really that wonderful? It's sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, right next to the new Jonathan Lethem, an old Margaret Atwood, and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children.
Posted by: Richard Nelson at July 13, 2004 11:53 AMErrr... is it really really really sad that i haven't read any of those except Hamlet, or is it just sad? I guess I read more non-fiction, although if I wasn't so concerned about catching up with the latest sociological theory and social research all the time, I would probably read more fiction. Yes, I might be "particularly fascinating", but I'm also a freak! =)
(P.S. I bet I'm a slower reader than you are.)
Posted by: derwin at July 12, 2004 11:14 PM