The Mega-List: My Favorite “Best of” Albums, Films, Books, TV, and Lies Lists

If there is a disorder that involves loving to write and read lists, then I have it. And this time of year is a double dose of joy for my lovely neurosis because we have the end-of- the-decade lists AND end-of-the-year lists. Can I girl get much happier? I’ve been reading way too many of these and thought I would write the mega list: my list of my favorite lists. And please feel free to add your thoughts on what’s not here. I'd love more suggestions of good art out there.

My Favorite Poetry Books from the Aughts (a reduction to ten is ridiculous)
The Beauty of the Husband by Anne Carson
Time and Materials by Robert Hass
The Selected Levis by Larry Levis
My Vocabulary Did This to Me by Jack Spicer
Unmentionables by Beth Ann Fennelly
Refusing Heaven by Jack Gilbert (Although in all honesty, this book is on here because of how much I loved Gilbert’s Great Fires.)
Tomas Transtromer translated by Robin Fulton
You by Frank Stanford
Steal Away: New and Selected by C.D. Wright
Dark Things by Novica Tadic translated by Charles Simic

Blake Butler’s best 25 poetry books of the decade (It’s a wonderful list.)
http://htmlgiant.com/behind-the-scenes/25-important-books-of-poetry-of-the-00s-by-brian-foley/


The Best Books list from NPR
This one site has many wonderful categories for this year’s best books such as best debut fiction, best foreign books, best indie bookstore books, best book club books, etc.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120499960


The Onion’s Best TV Shows of the Decade
http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-tv-series-of-the-00s,35256/1/
The Wire
Sopranos
Arrested Development
Freaks and Geeks
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
The Office (UK)
Lost
Deadwood
The Shield

The Onion’s Best Albums of 2009
http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-top-25-albums-of-2009,35918/
Andrew Bird, Noble Beast
Brother Ali, Us
Converge, Ax to Fall
P.O.S., Never Better
Neko Case, Middle Cyclone
Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orea
Sunset Rubdown, Dragonslayer
Animal Collective, Merrweather Post Pavilion
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
Phonix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix


Metacritic's 35 Best Reviewed Artists of the Aughts
1 Spoon
2 Sigur Rós
3 Super Furry Animals
4 Sleater-Kinney
5 White Stripes
6 Animal Collective
7 Drive-By Truckers
8 Lightning Bolt
9 Iron & Wine
10 The Hold Steady
11 The New Pornographers
12 Portastatic
13 Elbow
14 Low
15 Bob Dylan
16 OutKast
17 TV On The Radio
18 Sufjan Stevens
19 Tom Waits
20 Four Tet
21 Dizzee Rascal
22 Richard Hawley
23 Okkervil River
24 Sam Phillips
25 Radiohead (A popular pick for band of the decade, but 2001’s Amnesiac is holding them back here)
26 Yeah Yeah Yeahs
27 Kanye West
28 Andrew Bird
29 The National
30 The Go-Betweens
31 Neko Case
32 Blood Brothers
33 The Clientele
34 Modest Mouse
35 Yo La Tengo

Best Movies of the Past Decade from Peter Traver, critic with Rolling Stone
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Children of Men
3. Mulholland Drive
4. A History of Violence
5. No Country for Old Men
6. The Incredibles
7. Brokeback Mountain
8. The Departed
9. Mystic River
10. Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Steve Sparks’s Best Movies of the Past Decade
1. No Country for Old Men
2. Mulholland Drive
3. City of God
4.The Eternal Sunshine...
5. The Incredibles
6. Oldboy
7. Punch-Drunk Love
8. A History of Violence
9.The Descent
10. Brokeback Mountain
Honorable Mention: The Departed, Eastern Promises, Audition, Memento, The Dark Knight and Kill Bill, Vol. 1.

And let’s not forget the Best Political Lies of the Year
Winner is Sarah Palin’s “Death Panels”
And here are the runners-up: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/dec/18/lie-year-runners-up/

Oh--and the photo here is just one of my favorites from the past year.