Well, I probably won't go into as much detail the way it seems that other people will.

But I'll post a few favorites lists.

First off, the five runners-up in my Top 23 Singles of the Year (23's my favorite number, and I wasn't absolutely crazy about that many songs this year anyway.):

With Love, Hilary Duff (Billboard Peak: 24) (End-of-Year Billboard Dance #41)
- Before this year, Hilary Duff was basically an annoying gnat whose songs continually got better but I chalked it up to her getting better technology to mask the fact that she's actually talentless. Now, I'm still not completely convinced that she has talent, but I know that she churns out videos that are quite good and singles whose remixes are pretty hot.

Alfie, Lily Allen
- I love how her weird voice goes so well with the peculiarity of the song lyrics. The video just pops out at you because it has that same wonderful weirdness. Hopefully her next album will contain a few more ditties like this.

Do It Well, Jennifer Lopez (31)
- Ah, J. Lo. Your comeback didn't go so well, but, well, your album wasn't that good. I mean, you have enough songs that you could eke out a decent number of okay singles, but...there is mostly skippable filler filling your disc. Maybe you should go back to the days when you hit no. 1 with great collaborations that emphasized that you actually can sing. This song, at least, was danceable and catchy, although the lyrics made me expect a video that was actually good; alas.

Beautiful Liar, Beyonce & Shakira (3) (iTunes #43 Download, Billboard #62)
- Not the colossal disappointment many made it out to be. It is a perfectly good collaboration. The video is incredibly hot. I just feel that the concept of the song is unoriginal, and I've never been a huge fan of Shakira. Plus, I think I was still recovering from the Irreplaceable train of awesome when this came out.

Pictures of You, The Last Goodnight (78)
- Slow, simple, and sweet. Kind of the poor man's version of "Hey There Delilah." Which is only true cuz Delilah is really, really great. One of those bands that have just one truly good song on an otherwise meh album, but which show potential for much bigger things.

Love 4 of 5 out of there, also ur avatar

4/5

pictures of you

Weird number, but #5 and 6 were really close, so...

6. Invitation Only, By Kate Brian (B) – Scandalous and a perfect example of the “new girl rises to the top” genre. The following books' storylines were too heavy for fluff reading, though, so I didn't keep up with the series, but I still enjoyed this.

5. Just Listen, By Sarah Dessen (B) – Sad, relatable, sort of uplifting. Dessen does emotionally wrought, delicately constructed teen drama better than anyone.

4. Shopaholic & Baby, By Sophie Kinsella (A-) – Not quite as good as previous editions (though probably better than the fourth), but still highly readable. Very consistent series.

Never read them. I hope #1 is Deathly Hallows. xD

wow, a best books list. very awesome. only books i've read this year are I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert, The Assault On Reason by Al Gore, and The Areas Of My Expertise by John Hodgman. doubt that they will be on, but would be cool if they were!

Seriously nice to see a list on books!
Number six seems sort of appealing. After watching Gossip Girl, I have been wanting to check out the books and that book really reminds me of that show. As for Sarah Dessen, she seems really familiar. I think at some point I enjoyed a novel by her but I really cannot remember. Out of these three books, I would probably be most likely to check her book out.
Looking forward to the rest of the list!

3. Don't You Forget About Me (A-), By Cecily von Ziegesar - It had to deal with the incredibly egregious retconning of the last two books, but it did it with great style. The ending was pretty much everything I could have asked for, except of course that part of me still wanted more. In that sense, it's very akin to how I felt about the end of Sex and the City, which was the first thing this series was directly compared to. Too bad then the publishers felt it was time to plumb the gold mine some more with a pointless prequel and now a new Gossip Girl series with an entirely new "cast" of characters.

(To orange, here are my personal grades for each book of the series, in order, though of course your opinion will probably differ: B, B, B-, B-, C+, A-, B-, B-, C+, C+, A-, D+. The series is one of the few examples of the books not being as good as the screen adaptation, but I would say the series is still worth a read, even though it widely diverges from the TV series after the first book.).

2. Poor Things, By Alasdair Gray (A) - So technically this was published before I had even learned how to read, but I didn't discover it until this summer. Truthfully, I only took a look at it because Lindsay Lohan was reported to be in an adaptation of it (She used to be in good movies...), although it turned out Poor Things is a movie that's completely different from this book. But this book is pretty much fantastic...as long as you ignore the very very end (which I emphasize because the epilogue precedes it and is crucial for the book.) when the author explains..."facts."
So, so original. The only book that comes to mind that made me think, "Oh, wow, I never thought a book could be like that" to the extent this one does is Sophie's World, which...I would recommend reading only if you're interested in philosophy and want a relatively more interesting way of learning it. Poor Things helped me rediscover the fact that sometimes, it is worth it to just pick up a book that seems interesting (instead of reading what everyone else is reading, or reading the millionth installment to a favorite series of yours).

Gossip Girl! never read the books, but that show is such a gigantic guilty pleasure for me.

great stuff.

Holy crap, I love your taste in books. I am a huge sucker for teen/adult books and in the past few years have been getting into philosophy-related/non-fiction books. I honestly feel like I need to check out all the books you mentioned, especially Sophie's World, 3, 5, and 6. I am somewhat intrigued with Poor Things but it almost seems too fantasy-like for my taste but I honestly cannot judge just from the summary on Amazon. I might check that out.

With 3, I am glad you rated the series since I figured the books would be different from the actual show. Even harry potter ended up that way when it came to the movies, which interestingly ended up around the time I lost interest anyway. However, with Harry Potter, I had started the series before the movies, while in this case it would be opposite. Although, "the gold mine some more with a pointless prequel," is that really true? Hahaha. I remember seeing the first book of the series and then the "prequel" but I had no idea that it was just recently made! Wow. Still, insane to see how the ratings go from A- to D+ near the end but I guess I will at least start the series to see where I stand exactly. It would be interesting to read something and like the show more, but at the same time maybe I would have that bias anyway seeing I saw the show before? Who knows.

Oh yeah! I remember what book I read by Sarah. How To Deal. Somehow the book was so so much better than the movie, which I only saw because Mandy Moore was in it. While I realize that was probably one of her bigger hits, Dessen's, she had a style that was almost similar other female authors I adored at the time. Yeah, really looking forward to your #1

1. My favorite book of the year is the world’s most popular, Time magazine’s #8, and Amazon’s editors’ #3, which got its author the #1 spot on both Barbara Walters’ Most Fascinating People of the Year and Entertainment Weekly’s Entertainers of the Year lists. Yes, none other than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Now, my journey with Harry Potter has been a slightly twist-y one. I read the first three leisurely; I saw that they were quite good, but nothing extraordinary. Then the fourth came out and it was pretty much great. But because of a combination of everyone hyping up how freaking fantastic it was, to the point that a movie would be coming out soon to sully the quality of the books, and the fact that Rowling would take three freaking years to get the next one out, I got sick of the series and was sort of a Potter hater.

Then about half a decade later, I saw that it was stupid to refuse to like something just because it was popular (something my friends would refer to as being “hipster” or “emo” now, no doubt) or because, essentially, I knew I would like it too much and thus be dying inside because of such a long period of waiting. So I picked up the fifth book, which became my favorite book ever. Then the sixth. Fantastic again. I’m actually kind of glad I had that break from Potter love, because that meant that when I got back on the train there were two whole books out there I hadn’t read yet and which would not be completely sold out due to their having been out for awhile.

The waiting for the last book was, as I had expected, practically unbearable. In the meantime, I read the whole series over again twice or thrice. When the book finally came out, I actually started reading it the first second of the release date – I didn’t line up; rather, I read an, *ahem*, online version that was at times frustrating because the pages were photographs of book pages rather than perfect renderings. I had actually sort of been dreading that the book would be incredibly formulaic, which was the only problem I had with the fourth book (with the three tasks dictating the plot), but this actually wasn’t a problem at all (There were other problems, especially deaths that had no emotional or significant, plot-wise, impact and characters being out of character or characteristically jackass-y *cough Ron*.). Rowling did a great job balancing out the various tasks Potter & co. had to do (I’m being vague on purpose for those who haven’t read the book yet.). And the subplot that crept in near the end made one of the deaths one of the two most poignant of the entire series, along with the death at the end of the sixth book, and it made up the bulk of one of my favorite chapters of the entire series. Though there was another death, one that made me sad enough to cry – though not until the second time I read it, oddly enough – because the death scene itself was so sad, what with the universal motif of self-sacrifice.

And a note about the “Rowling is a sellout” movies: they’re perfectly…fine, as movies go. But really only the third movie would be re-watchable on its own merits, and it’s the only one in the series that’s better than any of the books (i.e. the first book, which failed to be completely coherent).




Next up: Best Songs, #21-23.

wow Harry Potter <3

Well, duh!

So I may or may not have less detail than previously with my lists because my computer sort of crashed (I'm using a shared computer right now, whose shift and return keys are sucking.), depending on if my computer gets fixed quickly. Anyway...

23. Teenagers, My Chemical Romance - Essentially, I'm a teenager, so I can totally relate to this song in regards to its message.

22. Paralyzer, Finger Eleven - I'm actually not that into rock, generally, but this song is just very catchy and reminiscent of many classic songs I enjoy.

21. Easy, Paula Deanda - It really feels like this song should have been more popular. It proved she could go into danceable R&B, the lyrics are the kind you want to sing along to, and her video was really hot. The only reason it's not higher is that I don't really like the guest vocals on the song.

So Far:
Runners-Up: Do It Well/Jennifer Lopez, Alfie/Lily Allen, Pictures of You/The Last Goodnight, With Love/Hilary Duff, Beautiful Liar/Beyonce & Shakira
23. Teenagers, My Chemical Romance (Rolling Stone #25, iTunes #98 Download)
22. Paralyzer, Finger Eleven (iTunes #8 Best Song, iTunes #53 Download, Billboard #98)
21. Easy, Paula Deanda

18. Our Song, Taylor Swift (23) (iTunes #3 Best Country Video & #10 Best Country Song, iTunes #7 Country Download)
So glad I discovered her this month. Surprised to like a genuine country song (as opposed to a pop-country song).

19. Get Me Bodied, Beyonce (68) (Billboard #26 Hip-Hop)
Beyonce is great. The full-length video is too.

20. Beautiful Flower, India.Arie (56)
Great message, great lyrics, even if sort of a “Video, Part Two.”

Sad but I think I like the list of girls more than the list of guys.
Where the heck is John Krasinski or even "McDreamy"?

Oh, by the way: I did not think Rowling sold out with the Harry Potter movies. It was just a coincidence that I started to lose interest around the time the movies came out. I think all movies turn out different compared to the books, so that was not really a new thing for me.

15. Girlfriend, Avril Lavigne (1) (Rolling Stone #35, iTunes #3 Best Pop Video, iTunes #4 Download, Billboard #12)
Fun. The video in particular. Gave me high hopes for the album; alas.

16. Potential Breakup Song, Aly & AJ (17) (iTunes #57 Download)
I thought this was stupid the first time I heard it, but it’s very catchy, especially the especially metered lyrics.

17. Change, Kimberly Locke ((Billboard End-of-Year #16 AC)
I listened to the remix about a million times.

I definitely agree with your comment for Potential Breakup Song! I had a similar reaction.
Well, then... I hope to see Penn Badgley or Zach Braff

All the movies I watched this year that didn't make it into my top five, in order to best:

Two for the Road (C-; sorta pointless)
V for Vendetta (C+; over-hyped and not really all that original)
Sicko (C+; well, it was okay as a documentary, but meh as a movie)
The Nun’s Story(B-; sorta depressing and overly long)
The Producers (B-; some parts were funny, some songs were good, but uneven characters/performances)
Because I Said So (B-; I like Mandy and I like Keaton in it; not exactly funny or well-written, but charming.)
The Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green (B-; I like romantic comedies with a happy ending and decent-looking leads, even those that aren't very good.)
They All Laughed (B-; not enough Hepburn, though the parts without her were relatively decent)

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (B-; too much goodness removed vs. the books, too Harry-focused)