#2, or Favorite Books of All Time.

List #2 is on deck now, pretty much pumped for his chance at bat. Another top ten:

My Top Ten Favorite Books of All Time, in No Particular Order

First off: I'm an AVID reader. I read EVERYTHING. So this took a while to put together in some sort of logical form. But here goes.

1. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

        Sarah Dessen, in general, is one of my favorite authors. I've got every one of her books in paperback (because they all have to match). Just Listen is one of hers that I can read OVER and OVER again. It's YA (as is most of my library) but there's nothing wrong with that.

2. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

        Yes. I'm one of THOSE. These, I have all in hardback. It took me about six months to get them all. Hardbacks are expensive, y'all.

3. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

        I. Love. This. Series. I recommend it all the time, to anyone who asks (and some who don't), because it's so good. I could go on and on and on about the Uglies series. But... I won't. Read them.

4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

        See above. Different style, same idea. Hunger Games is, granted, vastly more popular, and - since there's a movie - will be even more well-known.

5. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

        It's a 5-book sequence, complete with Good, Evil, magic, and British accents. Read them, but don't watch the movie (it sucked).

6. Rosehaven by Catherine Coulter

        Hey! First grown-up book! It's good. Romance, hatred, revenge - it's all in this one, plus it's a historical novel (set not long after the Crusades, if I'm not completely mistaken) AND there's a marten (see: stoat [see: weasel]) who is a strong supporting character.

7. The Shining by Stephen King

        Got this one for my birthday one year. Sat under a tree on campus reading it; every time someone saw me they scared me. My boyfriend at the time found it hilarious. My heart? Not so much.

8. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

        Back to the world of YA fiction! The entire Mortal Instruments series (and The Infernal Devices, the "prequel" series) should be on this list. Yummy guys. Magic. Vampires, werewolves, faeries, warlocks, angels, demons.... Must... Continue.

9. Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

        They're phenomenal. They're really quick reads, because they're actually a little younger than YA. But they can be read and enjoyed by adults - perhaps even more than the age group they seem to be geared towards - because they can provoke a lot of thought. 

10. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

        I was given these - in a single volume - for my 13th birthday. I. Was. Ob. Sessed. I read them about a gajillion times between my August birthday and the release of the first movie that December. I wore leather pants and pretended I was an elf in the woods. It was really really bad. :/

The first list! (Or, What to See Before I Die, Top 10 Version)

I like lists. They organize things into some sort of understandable, logical shape rather than discombobulated and confusing.

For starters: 

Where I'd like to go before I die: The Top Ten

1. PARIS, FRANCE

        Yeah, I know. Cliché as hell. But that's ok, because the City of Light is a cliché all its own. Also, it's called my name since I started taking French seven years ago, and - since I never stopped taking French - the sound has never stopped.

2. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

        It's LA. 'Nuff said.

3. NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

        Stuff happens in NOLA that couldn't possibly happen anywhere else. The combination of French and Spanish influences supposedly make for a very interesting amalgam of culture. Lastly: Beignets. Actually, firstly AND lastly: Beignets. They're fluffy fried pillows of delicious sunshine.

4. LONDON, ENGLAND

        Yeah, yeah, another cliché. But you know what, that's ok too. There's all sorts of things you could do there besides harass the Queen's Guard.

5. DUBLIN, IRELAND

        Welllllllll actually I just wanna see all of Ireland, but since Dublin is the city EVERYONE knows.... and what's not to love about Ireland? Well except that it supposedly rains all the time.

6. ITALY

        Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples, Verona, Pisa. Italian food (real Italian food, not Olive Garden). And hey, who knows? Maybe I'll pick up a little of the language, since it's not THAT far away from French.

7. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

        The Windy City? I think I'd like any place that earned a nickname like that. Also it seems like a pretty cool place to hang out.

8. BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND

        It's not in Ireland, although it's on the Irish island. It's a part of the UK. If I'm on the Irish island, I oughta get the whole perspective, right? Right.

9. WALES

        Love the idea of going to Wales, and maybe watching an actual shepherd with his collies. In fact, I think that one of these days I'll just hop around the whole UK, and France, and Italy, and maybe hit Spain and Germany and all sorts of other places too and just see it all.

10. NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

        ....okay. I've already been there. A couple times, actually. But really, I've only spent three days in the City itself, since most of the time spent in the state of New York with my family is spent in the relative peace you find so easily on Long Island. You could LIVE there and not know all there is to know about the City That Never Sleeps, so three days in the City means I know basically nothing about it. Except that New Years' Eve on Times Square is one of those things that can be done once and understood completely.