Books — a partial list — in no particular order:
- The Mouse and His Child
- The Keys of the Kingdom
- The Foundation trilogy (and the subsequent entries)
- Entries From a Hot Pink Notebook
- The Front Runner (and its sequels)
- Vampires Anonymous
- Crystal Boys
- The Elegant Universe (B. Greene)
- Silver Kiss
- Time travel and Alternate history (e.g. works of Connie Willis and Harry Turtledove)
Stay tuned for more…
Movies — a partial list — in no particular order:
- All About Eve
- Boys in the Band (yeah, I know, some people think it’s outrageous. It’s actually a wonderful portrait of a time and place and its people. There are also things about this movie that are timeless.)
- Bringing Up Baby
- Casablanca
- Chinatown
- Deconstructing Harry
- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
- Fellini films
- Godfather – all three (I’m a big fan of the third installment.)
- His Secret Life
- Jumpin’ Jack Flash
- La Cage aux Folles, I and II (the more I see it, The Birdcage is a decent American remake)
- LA Confidential
- Lord of the Rings – all three (just wonderful)
- The Hobbit — all three (wonderful, also)
- The Avengers
- Maltese Falcon
- Man Who Knew Too Much
- Manchurian Candidate (original version)
- The Bishop’s Wife
- Pink Panther Movies (not the Steve Martin versions. They just don’t cut it.)
- The “Thin Man” films (all of ’em)
- Trading Places
- Unfaithfully Yours (original version and new version)
- The Ritz
Stay tuned for more…
TV
- Bayblon 5 – the whole amazing thing; some of the finest moments in TV history and one of the best, maybe the absolute best SF series so far on TV
- Stargate SG1
- Stargate Atlantis
- Stargate Universe
- Battlestar Gallactica — the new version — this is among the finest TV has to offer. Not as good as B5 but still classy
- Falling Skies
- Castle
- Cold Case … every episode I’ve seen has been wonderful, but one episode, about a gay bashing, was truly a great moment in TV history.
- Third Rock from the Sun
- Alf – I love the guy
- Elementary
- Downton Abbey
- Game of Thrones
- Law and Order (the years with Jerry Orbach are some of the best)
- Major Crimes
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Teen Wolf
More to follow…
Music
Movie soundtracks (or really, movie scores, now that they’ve taken to calling a list of songs played in the background a “Soundtrack”) would be among the types at the top of the list – it’s a crowded field. Soundtracks by John Barry, Elfman, Horner, Williams, and others. I’m a finicky collector; collecting only those movies I enjoyed or composers whose music I like even if I didn’t (or will not) see the movie.
After this I like Big Band music, classical, world music, pop and rock, the old standards (Rosemary Cluney and Peggy Lee are unsurpassed), and country.
Genres (Book, Film, TV)
- Mystery
- Alternate History
- Science Fiction (especially time travel)
- Fantasy
- Gay fiction
- Vampire literature