Lists make me happy

I love lists....grocery lists, to-do lists, goals lists, pretty much anything that makes me feel accomplished as I check things off. If it has something to do with entertainment/pop culture then I really like it because I am having fun too. Right now I am working my way through 3 lists...

Top 25 Films of 2010 (according to IMDb)
A couple of those I really do not care to see (umm, what in the heck is Ip Man 2??), but probably will since they made the list. So far my faves from the list are The Social Network, The Town and Easy A. I'm surprised Black Swan and True Grit didn't make this list with all the hype they have gotten. We actually saw Black Swan last night with R&C. It was very dark and pretty weird, but in all honesty, dark and weird are two things I really like in my movies, so I was a fan of this one. I really loved all the beautiful ballet too.


Top Books of 2010 (according to Amazon users)
The Help is by far the best so far. I have high hopes for the The Hunger Games 3-book series. Speaking of books, I just finished Water for Elephants. Oh my gosh, a must read. I did get upset a few times over some of the graphic scenes/explanations of how the circus animals are treated (not that I didn't already know about the cruel, cruel treatment of circus animals still today), but this story is nothing short of amazing. The movie version comes out in April, so try and read it before then.


Banned Book List
This is definitely a long term task, but I have read about 15 on the list so far. I didn't even know about this list until about a year ago. It cracks me up some of the books on there. I guess it's pretty common for books to be challenged, but thankfully most of these challenges are unsuccessful. According to the ALA, a challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials (usually from a school library), based upon the objections of a person or group; a banning is the removal of those materials. The top 3 reasons books are challenged/banned are because (1) the material is considered sexually explicit, (2) the material contains offensive language, and (3) the material is unsuitable for all age groups. If you look at the list, you will see that the majority are not really any of these things, and I bet you read several of them during your school years. Crazy extremists. Obviously they have not heard of a little thing called the First Amendment.
If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. (Sup. Ct. Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.)