Favourite Stuff

MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS

Favourite Movie

Pygmalion (1938)    – Directed by Anthony Asquith & Leslie Howard “He can learn a language in a fortnight; knows dozens of them. The sure mark of a fool.” – Professor Henry Higgins

Television

In Treatment (HBO, Season 1) - Starring Gabriel Byrne

Favourite Book

Straight Man (1997)    – Richard Russo “[Russo] skewers academic pretensions and infighting with mad abandon....I had to stop often to guffaw, gasp, wheeze and wipe away my tears.” – Chicago Sun-Times    “It was my opinion (then and now) that two people who love each other need not necessarily have the same dreams and aspirations, but they damn well ought to share the same nightmares.” – William Henry Devereaux, Jr

Radio / Podcasts

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (NPR) - Peter Sagal (Host)

Favourite Quotes

“Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.” -Gore Vidal “So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys—to woo women—and, in that endeavour, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.” -N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society "It's where I keep all my things. Get a lot of compliments on this. Plus it's not a purse, it's called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one." -Alan Garner, The Hangover Rick: “Remember, this gun is pointed right at your heart.” Renault: "As it happens, that’s my least vulnerable spot.” -Casablanca

Satire

The Onion

Favourite shelf-warping fantasy series that gets more disappointing with every book. Favourite comic book artist. Favourite author whose books all have essentially the same plot and philosophical themes. Favourite book cover artist. Favourite author whose books have inflated page counts due to the large typeface, giving the illusion that the book is worth the money. Favourite childhood cartoon/animé. Most pretentious and bloated book that, for reasons passing understanding, everyone else seems to love. Favourite author with wit, 2/3rds of whose pop culture references I don't understand. Favourite book whose pop culture references I do understand. Favourite radio station. Once favourite author who always extends a good series with one too many books. Favourite book that's part of a high-school curriculum. Favourite magazine that's read aspirationally. Favourite magazine that's read ironically. Favourite book read entirely because of the title. Favourite author when I was a teenager but whose writing is rubbish when read as an adult. Favourite non-fiction writer. Favourite script writer. Favourite TV Show.

The Wheel of Time    - Robert Jordan Alex Ross L.E. Modesitt Jr. Michael Whelan Robert B. Parker Robotech The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen Chuck Klosterman Ready Player One - Ernest Cline National Public Radio Orson Scott Card Fifth Business - Robertson Davies GQ Men's Health Banana Boys - Terry Woo David Eddings Bill Bryson Aaron Sorkin The West Wing (First 4 seasons)