Uh-oh...

I somehow have no idea what to post. I'm racking my brain trying to come up with SOMETHING ridiculous, but nope. Nothing.

Ah. I know. I believe it's time we see the return of:

Paul's Ultimate List of the Very Best of Everything!

I had a lot of fun doing this the last time (one of my older blogs; the one on LiveJournal, wherein I called it "The Ultimate List of the Most Awesome Things in the Universe"), so I think I'll do it again. For those of you (most of you) who are unfamiliar with this, this is basically a list of all of the best things ever. But, of course, that's what the title says.
I'm just going to probably do a single winner in each sub-category, although it could be two or three if it's a hard decision.


::BOOKS::

-Mystery-
=Anything by Agatha Christie
She's like the best-selling author of all time, and there's a reason. Of course, I can't speak for every one of her bajillion and four books, but the ones I've read have been really good. They're well-written, and they have great plots and unexpected endings.

-Humor-
=The Diamond Brothers by Anthony Horowitz
These books are like... funny mystery sort of books. OK, so they aren't really totally hilarious, but they're definitely the most generally fun books I've read; the situations are totally bizarre, yet somehow believable. Oh, also, Mr. Horowitz's Alex Rider series is pretty good, too, but I didn't know what sort of category to put that under...

-Modern Fantasy-
=The Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix
Finally, fantasy books with a new setting! A friend recommended these to me recently, and I like them a lot so far, so I'm re-recommending them to you. There's two books left that aren't out yet, though, so I hope those ones are good too.
=-
There's another series that I was going to put in here, but some people would probably want to burn me at the stake as a heretic for even mentioning it, so I won't. That said, most of you will know exactly what I'm talking about, I imagine.

-Allegorical Fantasy-
=The Chronicles of Narnia by Clive Staples Lewis
OK, so, honestly, there was literally no competition in this category, or at least none that I've heard of. The Chronicles of Narnia is a really neat series of books; they're really interesting, and it's rather clever allegory at the same time.

-Semi-surreal Horror/Mystery Christian Fiction-
=The Veritas books by Frank Perretti
Yeah, this one was even worse. Still, it had to fit in somewhere, because I loved these books. They're kinda hard to describe... he uses these really weird situations to teach lessons, basically. It's a self-proclaimed "series," but the unfortunate reality is that there are only two books. Mr. Perretti (whose name I have surely misspelled somehow) has written other really nice books too, but they're pretty long, so I picked some nice, shortish ones you can pick up and read.

-"Classics"-
Classic: A book which people praise and don't read.
-Mark Twain
=20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
I really liked this book, because it's sort of a science fictiony thing, but it takes place under water, so it's new and unique. The setting and environment and everything are all interesting, and I love the story itself too.
=Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Yaaarrr! The ultimate pirate story, and one that actually portrays pirates as pirates. It's great. Everybody knows Treasure Island, why haven't you read it yet?!
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
If you don't read/like this book, you have no heart. It's that simple. So go read it, you monster!

-Children's Books-
=Roald Dahl's stuff
So what if Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was intended to be read by third-graders? It's great! So's all his other stuff, I highly recommend them. They're just plain good stories, and his weird, goofy little worlds are really entertaining, too.

-?-
=A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
I don't know what to call this, but if there's any series that deserves its own special category, it's this one. These books should have been THE book series of the decade. Unfortunately, that title probably ended up going to... that one series... that I mentioned earlier. They ended up probably being more popular in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, just because of the writing style and all that. Anyway, these books are totally unique. They're written towards kids, but probably half or more of everything in it would go right over their heads (which may have been completely intentional), and it doesn't matter how old or young you are, you really need to read these books. For starters, they're really funny. It's a totally different kind of humor, a special one that can only be pulled off in writing. You really just have to read the books to find out. But on top of the humor, they teach you a lot too, and make you think. Plus, it's like the books themselves are a strange mystery the reader must unravel. You could read through all of them, plus the extra materials that aren't actually a part of the series itself, several times without fully understanding everything. He makes random little references here and there, and he uses example stories that may or may not have anything to do with the total storyline. A lot of people say they hated how this ends, but I think it was the best ending ever.


::MOVIES::

-Science Fiction-
=Star Trek
Pretty much all of the original ones, starting at II, which was my favorite (Star Trek: The Motion Picture is horrible). Some of the Next Generation ones are pretty good too. These movies have really interesting situations and whatnot.... I dunno, I don't really have anything else specific to say about them.
=Star Wars
All six, but the original ones (IV, V, and VI) are the best. They really aren't very science fiction-y apart from the setting (by which I mean they just don't "feel like" science fiction movies, which I think was kinda George Lucas's goal; he was trying to be different), but they fit in here better than anything else. Anyway, the Star Wars movies have interesting storylines (or storyline, I guess), great special effects, neat environments... and... uh... robots, guns, and sword fights.

-Book-to-Movie Adaptations-
=The Lord of the Rings
No matter how much they cut out, these were just excellent movies. The books were really long, and I think they did a good job of condensing them into movies. The effects and props and everything were really cool, too.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
They pretty much managed to fit the entirety of the book into the movie, and they really captured the original mood and spirit well.

-Movies Based on Comic Book Heroes-
=Spider-Man
So you don't read comic books, right; well, you still need to see this movie (the first one, at least). Even if it doesn't change your mind, it's really excellent. Spider-Man has one of the best storylines ever, it's really powerful and emotional for being just a comic book, and they took that, turned it into a movie, and made it even better in some ways.
=Batman Begins
This movie is also good, for different reasons. It's really suspenseful and nifty and just plain COOL! It's the ultimate Batman movie, to be sure.

-Comedy-
=The Pink Panther movies
Peter Sellers really made these movies, so you need to see the ones with him in them. They're hilarious! It's just that stupid, ridiculous kind of humor you just plain don't see anymore. These movies have really hilarious lines in them, plus just weird stuff that's just funny. "Special delivery. It's a bomb, were you expecting one? A BOMB?!" ...Ehh, it's funnier with the silly voice. Which I can't do. That's why you need to see the movie.
=Muppets
The old ones are the best because they capture the whole Jim Henson spirit so much better. My favorites are the Christmas Carol and Treasure Island ones, and the Great Muppet Caper. They're ridiculously funny, and have lots of stupid jokes that are actually really lame but are hilarious for some reason.

-Animated-
=Pixar's stuff
I can't think of a single one of the Disney-Pixar movies that's not good. So, basically, go watch 'em, even if, like I said with books, they're "kids' movies." That never stops me, but that's probably because, since I have so many siblings, that's like half of what I see anyway.

--

OK, well, I think I'll call this one done. I'll continue this with video games tomorrow (there will probably be a lot of those), and maybe I'll finish Ihilcamina's story, too.


:::Source=Paul M-unit MKII
...List part 1/2 Complete...