I’m not quite finished with the December reading/watching recap, but since publishing “best of” lists is the thing to do at the end of the year, I figured I could go ahead and do that. And by “best of 2006″ I mean “best that I saw or read in 2006,” because, as usual, I was not proactive enough at theatres and new release bookshelves to give any sort of a best movies or books released in 2006 list.

Top Ten Films I Watched in 2006 (none of the lists are in any particular order…most are chronological of when I saw them, because that’s the order of the records I started from)

• Brick (original reaction)
• Grave of the Fireflies (original reaction)
• In a Lonely Place (original reaction)
• Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (original reaction)
• Downfall (original reaction)
• The Constant Gardener (original reaction)
• Wit (original reaction)
• Grand Illusion (original reaction)
• The Queen (original reaction)
• Volver (original reaction)

Honorable Mentions

• Match Point (original reaction)
• Munich (original reaction)
• Pickpocket (original reaction)
• Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (original reaction)
• Inside Man (original reaction)
• Good Night and Good Luck (original reaction)
• The Departed (original reaction)
• Talk to Her (original reaction)
• Transamerica (original reaction)
• Little Miss Sunshine (original reaction)

Ten Films You Probably Haven’t Seen But Ought To

• Junebug (original reaction)
• Primer (original reaction)
• Cache (original reaction)
• Elevator to the Gallows (original reaction)
• November (original reaction)
• Sholay (original reaction)
• Thumbsucker (original reaction)
• Smiles of a Summer Night (original reaction)
• Thank You for Smoking (original reaction)
• A History of Violence (original reaction)

Some Films I Really Had Gotten to St. Louis Before I Had to Go Back to Waco:

• Children of Men
• Pan’s Labyrinth
• Curse of the Golden Flower
• The Good German

Top Ten Books I Read This Year

• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (original reaction)
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (original reaction)
• Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (original reaction)
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (original reaction)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (original reaction)
• Hitchcock’s Films by Robin Wood (original reaction)
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (original reaction)
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard (original reaction)
• Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (original reaction)
• One by One in the Darkness by Deirdre Madden (original reaction)

Top Five TV Shows (network only; I can’t keep track of cable)

• Veronica Mars (CW)
• The Office (NBC)
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
• House (FOX)
• Heroes (NBC)

Top Five Guilty Pleasure TV Shows (by this I mean either that they aren’t really GOOD, but I like them, or merely that I enjoy them, but not in a substantial, fannish way)

• Desperate Housewives (ABC)
• The Amazing Race (CBS)
• Bones (FOX)
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (FOX)
• Standoff (FOX)

On the subject of TV shows, 24 will probably be joining the first set of TV shows this spring, and American Idol will certainly be joining the “guilty pleasure” set in LIKE TWO WEEKS! Just so you know, this blog will likely be taken over by American Idol fever after the premiere on January 16th.

Posted in books, film, television
Tagged:A History of Violence, Best Of Lists, Bones, Brick, Cache, Desperate Housewives, Downfall, Elevator to the Gallows, Ficciones, Good Night and Good Luck, Grand Illusion, Grave of the Fireflies, Heroes, Hitchcock's Films, House, How I Met Your Mother, In a Lonely Place, Inside Man, Invisible Cities, Junebug, Little Miss Sunshine, Match Point, Mrs. Dalloway, Munich, November, One by One in the Darkness, Pickpocket, Primer, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Sholay, Smiles of a Summer Night, Sophie Scholl, Standoff, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Talk to Her, Thank You for Smoking, The Amazing Race, The Constant Gardener, The Departed, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Office, The Queen, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Thumbsucker, Transamerica, Veronica Mars, Volver, Wallace and Gromit, Wit