“A while back, Dick, Barry and I agreed that what really matters is *WHAT* you like, not what you *ARE* like. Books, records, films – these things matter! Call me shallow, it’s the fucking truth.”

High Fidelity

so what do your reading/watching/listening habits say about you? For example, I was recently challenged to name my top five all-time favourite movies. Do you know how difficult that is? try it and see. no “reserve” list, no alternates, no more than five. for the record, here’s what I came up with (in no particular order):

E.T.
High Fidelity
American Beauty
Lost in Translation
The Royal Tenenbaums

are my tastes mainstream because these all happened to be very commercial movies? am i wacky because i like offbeat humour? am i immature because i still cling to e.t.? probably a little of all of the above, but none overwhelmingly so (though I’m sure others will disagree). these are the few movies that have stirred me and changed me in strange and indefinable ways. these are the movies that matter in my emotional landscape. but does this visual collage make up a snapshot of who i am?

in another example, time recently came out with a list of the 100 best english language novels since 1923. it’s an interesting list, and it turns out I’ve read 22 of these books, which is a decent chunk, for someone who has no hard and fast criteria. I mean, I generally read contemporary fiction, but the “classics” are classic for a reason. yet, if I had to pick my top five all time favourite books, they’d be:

mary poppins – p.l. travers
cat’s eye – margaret atwood
nine stories – j.d. salinger
a tree grows in brooklyn – betty smith
the accidental tourist – anne tyler

two contemporary books, and three childhood favourites, nothing completely unpredictable. of all the books i’ve read, these are the only ones i know i’ve read over and over again. in a way, i worry that my recent favourites will not stand the test of time. and some of the best-written books i’ve read, have also been the hardest to read. for example, i just finished “the god of small things” which was perhaps the most memorably written book i’ve ever read, the striking use of language and plot-building. But will I read it again? i’m not sure – it didn’t affect me in the way that these books did. also, there is only one male author on the list when in reality, most of what i read is written by men – very sexist men, in fact. men like bukowski and hemingway and easton ellis. in fact, i’m not quite sure this list is truly representative of anything except habit – a safe list of books that i find pleasingly soothing to re-read. and i guess what someone could take away from that is that i like comforting novels (although notably, both anne tyler and margaret atwood write with predominant themes of alienation and disaffection, which are hardly cozy). something unidenitfiable about these books speaks to me, and I’d be hard pressed to figure out what or why. yet they are my literary equivalent of hot cocoa.

in any case, you can draw what conclusions you like, or none at all. i’ve found it hard to try not to alter my lists towards what i think would make me look more eclectic, or intellectual, or well-rounded. to be truthful in the face of critique and judgement. but if you were to set out your own list, what would I think of you?

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