So, here’s a fun little exercise that’ll drive you mad – and it’s nothing to do with spanking! Nic Steele (who comments here regularly, and who’s become a dear friend) and I have spend the past few months on and off swapping lists. It started with me commenting that a particular play probably ranked in the top ten I’d seen; that moved onto writing the full list; we then debated films, and finally (at a lovely lunch a couple of days back) the most important category of all – books.
Just for fun, I thought I’d share my lists, which are each in order (favourite first):
THEATRE
Black Watch
Jerusalem – Rylance
Breaking the Code – Jacobi
Richard III – Russell Beale
Equus – Radcliffe
Richard III – Spacey
Frankenstein – Cumberbatch, Miller
The Entertainer – Lindsay
Hamlet – Russell Beale
Never So Good – Irons
FILMS
The Third Man
Brief Encounter
Before Sunset
Lost in Translation
Schindler’s List
Ratatouille
Romeo & Juliet (Luhrmann)
The End of the Affair
V for Vendetta
Waterland [or does ‘Of Gods and Men’ creep into the list?!]
BOOKS
The Great Indian Novel
Gilead
The Remains of the Day
Pride and Prejudice
The Night Circus
I, Claudius
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
The Indian Clerk
Middlesex
The Weekend
It’s amusing to reflect on some of the characteristics of the lists: eight of the ten movies have reduced me to tears, for example, and a fair few are a retelling of the same story (“Brief Encounter”). Yet the books and plays tend to have moved or impressed me in different ways.
I’d be really interested in any comments on my lists, and on what’d appear on yours… But I warn you: if you embark on writing your own lists, you will find yourself refining them for months to come! (Books, for example: how can I possibly leave out “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” or “Little, Big”?!). And huge, huge thanks to Nic for playing along – and for such a lovely lunch on Thursday!
* yes, “High Fidelity” was written with me in mind; no, that didn’t quite make the lists!
I’m jealous of how many plays you’ve seen. I haven’t been to the theater in decades, and even then I only saw a few musicals. Living where I do, there aren’t any high end non-musicals that tour the country, so I’m deprived. My problem with my book list is I read almost all science fiction, and it would be very difficult to decide which ones are my favorites. I like newer movies, but there are so many old movies that need to be on my list! I’ve seen All About Eve enough times to be able to recite the dialogue along with the movie. LOL
Abel, do you share with your friend Nic, the top ten ‘spanking blogs’ that you believe exist.
And I hadn’t realised that I would suffer from the equivalent of sub drop at the end of the list to end all lists :- (
Though if it’s as much fun reading each other’s favourite books as it has been watching the films then I have months of treats ahead. And lunch was truly special.
Hugs
Jen – theatre-going is something of an addiction for me; far more so than watching movies.
Sixofthebest – think the links on the left of the page are probably as close as I’ll ever come to a personal top list of spanking blogs; I wouldn’t really want to narrow it down much further
Nic – I know I keep wondering what lists we can work on next!!
I love that your list of films goes from Schindler’s List to Ratatouille. A few of those books are on my bookshelf waiting to be read, I’ll have to move them to the front of the queue.