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The Top 10 of Everything

2

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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,544 ✭✭✭✭Electric Nitwit


    Very solid list QB - what keeps Spielberg off it? I presume you've enjoyed a good few of his, are there others that drag him down?



  • Registered Users Posts: 10,544 ✭✭✭✭Electric Nitwit


    My first thought of a top ten was Radiohead albums, as they've had ten (if you include the live album, I Might Be Wrong) but trying to rank them would give me a nervous breakdown 🥴



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    Great list, excellent use of you ratings (I keep an IMDB ratings too once I watch something, but only for the last 3 or 4 years, so its incomplete, and I have a tendency to hand out 10's like I was Oprah ; you get a 10, you get a 10, everybody gets a 10 😆) and fair play for giving your thoughts on individual movies too ; a few there I need to check out/add to my watchlist.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    I'm glad people are going out of their way to make lists and seemingly enjoying the concept, otherwise it would've been an entire thread of me just posting lists to myself. 😋



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 16,287 Mod ✭✭✭✭quickbeam


    Spielberg has an average rating of 6.0/10 over 22 films. Yeah, a few too many 5/10s bring his score down, eg: AI, CE3K, Hook, Crystal Skull, War of the Worlds.

    Also surprised Hitchhock and Tarintino didn't make it, personally.


    Oh, I rate on IMDB too 😊 Can never have my ratings recorded too often, in case one of them fails 😛. Eg, my books are on spreadsheet and Goodreads.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    Top 10 Superman Songs

    There are actually hundreds of songs about Superman (or that reference Superman in some way), and I did a deep dive into them last year purely for my own amusement, found a few unknown gems as well as a handful of more well known hits that would make up my Top 10...

    After that essay I wrote on Saved By The Bell last night, for this one, I'll simply let the songs do all the talking for themselves...

    10. Sufjan Stevens - The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts

    9 - Lazlo Bane - Superman

    8. Five For Fighting - Superman (It's Not Easy)

    7. The Ides of March - Superman

    6. Big Head Todd & The Monsters - Resignation Superman

    5. Our Lady Peace - Superman's Dead

    4. Daughtry - Waiting For Superman

    3. 3 Doors Down - Kryptonite

    2. Crash Test Dummies - Superman's Song

    1. Les Variations - Superman

    On another day that Top 10 could look slightly different depending on my mood, but a big fan of all of those songs, and had fun ranking a Superman themed music playlist...

    I've even got a YouTube Playlist with all 10 songs for easy access...

    The Ballad of Clark Kent



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,696 ✭✭✭nothing


    Wasn't familiar with all, but some excellent tunes in there. Big fan of 3 doors down, that whole album is great.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    3 Doors Down and Our Lady Peace pretty much made up the majority of the soundtrack to my first year of college. I had just discovered them both around that time and had an MP3 player that solely consisted of albums from those two bands.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,696 ✭✭✭nothing


    Hadn't listened to 3DD in ages, so fired it up on Spotify. Think I have 2 of their albums on CD somewhere, was also the partial soundtrack to a couple of college years for me



  • Registered Users Posts: 10,544 ✭✭✭✭Electric Nitwit


    Probably showing our age difference, but I can't believe you didn't include REM!




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  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    Was one of the ones that would've been on my shortlist, but doesn't quite outshine any of the Top 10 for me...

    Had to leave out a lot of songs I really like just to prune it down to 10 though, it pained me to leave out Laurie Anderson who just missed out on a spot... On the right day though, if I was in a quirky kind of mood, I'd gladly have it as my #1




  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight



    This is a Giant Isopod.


    Top 10 songs about them

    • 10 - Meles Meles – Isopod Love Song
    • 9 - Plurals – What Know They Of Bathynomus?
    • 8 - Jam on Bread – Isopod in my bathroom
    • 7 - Ziggy Bolus & The Thomas Ferguson Band – Me, Myself and Isopod
    • 6 - Stealthtones – Nefarious Crustacean Confectionary Debacle
    • 5 - Time Space Repeat – Rise of the Giant Isopods
    • 4 - Werk – Giant Isopods Have Stolen My Gameboy
    • 3 - The Jaynes – Crusty The Isopod
    • 2 - Pagan Wanderer Lu – An Isopod Is Cute In The Eyes Of An Isopod
    • 1 - Pocus Whiteface – Giant Isopods Ate My Well-Known Brand of Corn Chips




  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    Had no idea there were so many songs about Isopods, but I love it! 😂



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,875 ✭✭✭Irish Aris


    Great list quickbeam, I will try to make one of my own.

    Peter Weir could possibly be number 1. Dead Poets Society is my favourite film of all times and I like most of his 80s and 90s films.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,875 ✭✭✭Irish Aris


    Ah, Laurie Anderson that's a fantastic song!!



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 16,287 Mod ✭✭✭✭quickbeam


    I honestly thought that was a picture of a woman’s hair do. Am I crazy?



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton




  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 16,287 Mod ✭✭✭✭quickbeam


    Probably am crazy. But, honestly, first glance and I thought it was something like this.





  • Registered Users Posts: 14,811 ✭✭✭✭ShaneU




  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    Well that's easy enough to explain since that song is fairly rubbish.




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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,811 ✭✭✭✭ShaneU


    My apologies, I forgot how bad your taste in music is 😝



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 16,287 Mod ✭✭✭✭quickbeam


    Top 10 Fantasy Book Series

    For any avid readers out there, who also like Fantasy. This list is more about my gut feeling than relying on spreadsheet scores. I also thought long and hard, but left A Song of Ice and Fire (possibly better known as Game of Thrones) out.. Even though I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed the five books released to date, as it's an incomplete series, I can't really justify ranking it anywhere. Fantasy fans will notice at least one other serious omission, but if that's the case then it's probably because I just haven't read it yet

    Here we go:

    10 Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling, 7 books, 1997-2007

    Yeah, apart from some serious silliness, ad plot holing, they were admittedly, a very gripping series. They weren't books of my childhood, as I was already an adult when the series started, and even then, didn't read them until nearly a decade later when a friend twisted my arm about reading them. Honestly, the first two in the series are really quote bad, let's be honest. But said-friend encouraged me to push on, and by the third book, I did find myself hooked. They manage to be charming and engaging, even when everything is very silly, but I did find myself blubbering at certain pivotal moments in the series.


    9. Farseer Trilogy, Robin Hobb, 3 books, 1995-1997

    I have only the vaguest memory of this series, which I read first 7-8 years ago. I do remember enjoying them very much though If I could remember it better, it may very well appear higher on the list. It's about a young boy called Fitz, who is the bastard child of a prince of the realm who goes to live at the castle where he is neither quite family, nor quite servant, but is assigned the role of learning the trade of being an assassin for the king. It's a book series that's more about characters and setting than it is about a hugely page-turning plot. But it's excellently done with characters you'll genuinely love, or ferociously hate. It's a trilogy that's part of the wider "Realm of the Elderlings" series and even though I've not managed to yet, I do plan on continuing more by this author.


    8 Earthsea Series, Ursula K. Le Guin, 4 books, 1968-1990

    Well, there's also a fifth book, and various short stories, which I haven't read. But the first four books I have read, and thought they were great. They're set in a world made up mainly of sea, with hundreds, or thousands of islands in it. It follows a character called Ged from boyhood through to old age in the four books, as well as some other key characters he meets along the way. Each book is fairly self-contained, and they're fairly easy reads. The world is brilliantly imagined, and the characters are very real, with very human faults in them. It's refreshing to see a character's transition through a whole lifetime, instead of just a few years of their lives like in most series.


    7. All Souls Trilogy, Deborah Harkness, 3 books, 2011-2014

    Perhaps better known as the title of the first book, A Discovery of Witches, this is a series that is a lot better than the plot makes it sound. Honestly. It's set in our world, but one where witches, vampires and daemons walk among us, and are quite benevolent for the most part, with the odd bad egg like you'd get among humans too. It mostly concerns a witch and a vampire who are fighting a certain element of these bad eggs, and falling in love along the way, breaking all the rules of inter-species-marriage. Yes, I guess, it's hard not to make the Twilight comparison. And as I haven't read Twilight (and have no intention of doing so), I can't say this does it better, but I can say that it does it really well, even to this old sceptic, and I fell in love with the characters as much as they did with each other.


    6. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, 3 books, 1995-2000

    This follows a girl named Lyra the city of Oxford in a parallel universe to ours. A universe where each human has a daemon animal that represents their soul that accompanies them throughout their life, and where polar bears and witches live. But as the series progresses, world literally start to collide and we meet characters from our own world. It's a young adult series, but deals with very grown up themes of religion, and original sin, and about what it is to transition from childhood to adulthood.


    5. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S Lewis, 7 books, 1950-1956

    It's somewhat appropriate that I put this side by side with His Dark Materials. Both deal with religious themes, but where the latter is decidedly anti-religion, Narnia promotes Christian ideals However, it isn't really as heavy-handed as all that, and you can enjoy them just on their own merits. They were a favourite series for me as a child, but I read them again as an adult (with trepidation) and actually still loved them. They are simply told, as befits a children's books, but never dumbed-down. They are included her in part for nostalgia reasons, but mainly because they're just excellent reads.


    4. Broken Empire Trilogy, Mark Lawrence, 3 books, 2011-2013

    This is a series, very much for grownups. Our hero is Jorg, who is a complete arsehole from the outset. He's a prince who has run away from home, joined a group of brigands, and they rape and pillage their way through the countryside. We learn his reasons for his decisions, and they are believable and we are sympathetic. But it doesn't make any nicer of a guy. This is grimdark fantasy, and probably not for everyone. I thought it was great. It's set in a very unique world - the typical fantasy medieval set world is turned on its head somewhat. Our hero is someone I can't help liking, even when he commits the worst of atrocities, I can't help but admire his bravado. A very enjoyable trilogy and I plan to read more by this author.


    3. The First Law, Joe Abercrombie, 3 books, 2006-2008

    Another grimdark series. You're following six main characters that includes a torturer, a narcissist, a warrior with a tendency to berserker rampages, a brigand scout, someone full of hate and vengeance, and a soldier. And you'll love them all. Each character is so well realised. It's set in a kingdom struggling to survive, with wildmen attacking their Northern borders, and a great Empire attacking them in the South. And through this our characters have to survive by their wiles, while a mage sets off on his own quest for mysterious reasons. There are also some standalones, a collection of short stories, and a second trilogy which will be completed later this year, all of which I intend to read.


    2. The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, 14 books + 1 prequel, 1990-2013

    The books above, ranked 3-10 were in fairly arbitrary positions, and may well switch around. My top two, are definitely my top two, and are probably interchangeable between them. This is an amazing, epic series. It was conceived and started by Robert Jordan until he died prematurely with the series uncompleted, and finished by Brandon Sanderson. It is a series with the familiar trope of good vs evil, and a Chosen One required for good to triumph. But it is so-ooo much more than that. "Good" and "Evil" aren't necessarily so easy to define. Some of the good people have opposing views about how to battle evil and decide by doing battle with each other instead. Some good people are liable to go mad and do crazy things. Some bad people will act in their own interests instead of the interests of their side. It is a mammoth series, with well over 100 point of view characters, and nearly 3000 named characters. But it makes it a rich world, and the dozen or so key characters will become like your family - you may like them, you may not, but they'll likely be with you for the rest of your life.


    1. Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, 3 books, 1954-1955

    The granddaddy of them all! I've had arguments with some who say it's not a series, but one book, published in three parts. Maybe, but the fact that it is published in three parts is enough for me to think it a series. And if we're being very technical, each of those published parts has two books in them, so it's a total of six books, which is definitely a series! Plus, add in The Hobbit (which I personally actually didn't like) and The Silmarrillion (difficult to get in to, but very much worth the effort), then you definitely have a series. Anyway, I probably don't need to say much about it as everyone is surely at least familiar with the story. Without this series there very likely wouldn't have been many of the series listed above.



  • Registered Users Posts: 10,544 ✭✭✭✭Electric Nitwit


    I wouldn't be an avid fantasy fan but I agree with your top two. The Wheel of Time books were great. I think I lost interest around 6 or 7, there was one I remember dragging badly. One day I'll go back

    I haven't heard the word grimdark before but I like the sound of those 😋



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    Have a few to seriously consider adding to my reading list from this. I do tend to avoid getting invested in quite a few fantasy Series due to the sheer length of a lot of them, and then the actual number of books in the series as well.

    In theory, I'd love to give The Wheel of Time a whirl, have been considering it for years, but when I think about how many books are in it and the length of them it's potentially such a commitment. Even if I really love them and want to read them all back to back, you're kind of looking at the best part of a year (maybe longer depending on how dense the novels are in tone) where I'd be essentially neglecting any other writers and genres.



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 16,287 Mod ✭✭✭✭quickbeam


    Depends how quickly you read I guess. If you read back to back WoT would take 2/3 months. I wouldn't recommend that way though. Even the best of series will likely cause burnout if read that way. And as EN says, there is a slow-down in the middle (most people would say books 8-10) that would mean a back-to-back read is more difficult. But you can do one a month and read other things in between, which is what I did. You're not neglecting other things you want to read that way. At least read the first two books to know if it's something you'll be in to. If you like those, then finishing the series will be well worth it.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,941 ✭✭✭osh


    Good list, from what I've read of them anyway. I'd probably have a few others in mine. Discworld would have to be there, as would the Black Company series by Glen Cook, and the Empire trilogy by Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurts.



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 16,287 Mod ✭✭✭✭quickbeam


    Ah Discworld would well deserve a spot too. I don’t know Black Company, will need to check it out. The only Feist I read was Magician which I wasn’t keen on though.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,941 ✭✭✭osh


    Yeah Magician was ok, read a few of the Riftwar books. The Empire trilogy is part of the same universe, bit of cross over, but I found it much better. Set in a Oriental style land, lots of scheming and political intrigue.

    The Black Company series is a darker fantasy setting, following a group of mercenaries. Might not be everyone's thing but I enjoyed it



  • Registered Users Posts: 84,341 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1


    Top 10 Boardsies

    Top 10 Superheroes

    Top 10 Film Actors

    Top 10 Film Actresses

    Top 10 Irish tv series / shows

    Now to comply my lists



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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,967 ✭✭✭Declan A Walsh




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