Top Five Writers

In that I like how they lay words down on paper…

• Anita Konkka
• Shirley Jackson
• Robert Aickman
• Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Fernando Pessoa

Top Five Japanese Novels

All read in translation.

• The Makioka Sisters (Junichiro Tanizaki)
• The Pillow Book (Sei Shonagon)
• Shipwrecks (Akira Yoshimura)
• Black Rain (Masuji Ibuse)
• The Sound of Waves (Yukio Mishima)

Top Five Favorite Books

This changes frequently.

• The Book of Disquiet (Fernando Pessoa)
• Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
• A Fool’s Paradise (Anita Konkka)
• The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
• Where the Lillies Bloom (Bill and Vera Cleaver)

Top Five Films

From someone who sees movies infrequently.

• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
  
• Enter the Dragon (1973)
  
• The Man Without A Past (2002)
  
• Fargo (1996)
  
• Harold and Maude (1971)

Top Five Horror Films

• The Thing (1982)
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Diabolique (1955)
• Ninth Gate (1999) This is probably not real horror, just more Lovecraftian-esque.
• Incubus (1966) The immense hilarity of William Shatner speaking Esperanto and the goat scene ensure this a spot.
• Bonus: Sauna (2008) because I have no idea what happened in it and for the record, I also thought The Blair Witch Project (1999) was really frightening when I first saw it in the theaters, before it became a huge cliche.

Top Five Stress Relievers

• IKEA (unless it is crowded.  It’s just so…sensible).
• Knitting.
• Baths.
• Escaping the concrete jungle.
• Wine, cheaper than Valium.

Top Five Most Disturbing Novels I’ve Read

• The Tenant by Roland Topor, hands down.
• The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaetan Soucy—if you don’t read it carefully you miss how incredibly disturbing it is.
• Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada  This book gave me a bad case of angst.
• Level 7  by Mordecai Roshwald Existentially depressing allegory of nuclear war.
• The Trial  by Franz Kafka  Nauseating, claustrophobic and at the end you throw it down and say WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ.
• Bonus: Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon for sheer WTFery and Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, which might be the worst written book ever published.  Or maybe it was the translation.  Or the concept.
  

Top Five Least Favorite Female Film Stars

• Julia Roberts
• Jennifer Aniston
• Sandra Bullock
• Meg Ryan
• All the others.

Top Five Commonly Eaten Breakfast Foods

• Lucky Charms
• Frozen waffles
• Filet O’ Fish sandwiches
• Cookies I scrounged from the office
• Nothing