Best of the 2000s: Day 4 (Books; Odds and Ends)
Year-end (and decade-end) lists that get published at the end of November/beginning of December irk me. I understand that most publications take off work during the last couple of weeks, but it just seems wrong. I used to post my lists (on ye olde Livejournal) in January of the following year to make sure that I wouldn’t miss out on some of the big records that I hadn’t lived with yet or on movies that were late to open in wide release. Problem is, no one cares once you post that late. So I’m compromising. This week, December 28-31, I’ll focus on the 2000s. Each day, I’ll post one-quarter of my Top 100 songs (in convenient download format, if I can pull it together) as well as one general decade-end list (probably albums, movies, TV and books). On January 1, I’ll follow up the decade lists with a post dedicated to 2009. As always, this is my opinion. I’m wouldn’t even want to compose some sort of objective list, even if such a thing were possible. This is simply the pop cultural detritus that I most enjoyed during the past decade/year.
Top 5 Books of the 2000s
01) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (2000)
02) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2004)
03) The Areas of My Expertise (2005) / More Information Than You Require (2008) by John Hodgman
04) Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (2000)
05) I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris (2006)
Hodgman’s books are essentially two volumes of the same work, so they get the combo treatment.
I decided to only do five books - not because I don’t read much, but because a) I didn’t read much published this decade, and b) the books that would finish out the top 10 would mostly be the same as on everyone else’s lists (Cloud Atlas, A Heartbreaking Work, etc.) and I like to pretend to have somewhat original opinions.
It seems my tastes run to invented footnotes (#1-3) and Sedarises (#4-5).
Top 100 Songs of the 2000s: Part 4 (Odds and Ends)
(not in any particular order)
01) data Panik - “Cubis (I Love You)” (2005)
02) Justice vs Simian - “We Are Your Friends (Original Mix)” (2006)
03) Klaxons - “Gravity’s Rainbow” (2007)
04) Sister Vanilla - “Down” (2007)
05) Black Box Recorder - “The Facts of Life” (2000)
06) Air - “Playground Love” (2000)
07) Kate Wax - “Catch the Buzz” (2006)
08) Interpol - “Slow Hands (Britt Daniel remix)” (2004)
09) King Creosote - “Klutz” (2005)
10) Saul Williams - “List of Demands (Reparations)” (2004)
11) LCD Soundsystem - “Someone Great” (2007)
12) Teenage Fanclub - “The World’ll Be OK” (2003)
13) Goldfrapp - “Ride a White Horse” (2005)
14) Simian Mobile Disco - “I Believe” (2007)
15) Destroyer - “An Actor’s Revenge” (2004)
16) Broken Social Scene - “Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl” (2002)
17) Santogold - “L.E.S. Artistes” (2008)
18) I Am Kloot - “To You” (2001)
19) The Streets - “Let’s Push Things Forward” (2002)
20) The Knife - “Heartbeats” (2002)
21) M.I.A. - “Paper Planes” (2007)
22) Electrelane - “To the East” (2007)
23) The Postal Service - “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” (2003)
24) Ladytron - “Playgirl” (2000)
25) Marianne Faithfull - “Last Song” (2005)
Download
I couldn’t decide on exactly what theme I wanted this last set to be, so you get a little bit of everything.
The decade is officially over (culturally, if not scientifically). So is my decade round-up. Happy new year/decade!