I was talking to a friend and we were chatting about our top 10 lists so I thought I get it all down now and see if anything changes 10 years from now 🙂 Before I do films, TV series and music, here goes nothing for my top 10 books (in no particular order) It’s mostly books that have touched my life enough and created a deep impression that I’ve reread these books more than twice.

Sneezing Powder and Other Stories, Enid Blyton – I was crazy about this book in primary school and could reread the stories over and over and over again. Recently I found it at Popular and guess what? I still enjoy them 🙂

Madam Bovary, Gustave Flaubert – I first read it at 16 and it did nothing for me, complete *Yawn* maybe it was the Penguin version but I reread when I was 19, the Vintage version and was completely enthralled with the emotions. I was also older and had fallen in love by then so the story resonated with my young soul. I’ve read it again a couple times since then.

The Blue Nowhere, Jeffery Deaver – I had bought this book at the airport on the way to LA, think it was 2002, I didn’t read it till after the transit stop in Hong Kong, and I didn’t sleep all 10 overs hours to LA, I just couldn’t put the book down. I really like his mystery thrillers and I think I’ve read them all but this is my favourite.

Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder – I read it when I was on my first summer holiday from Uni. Still relatively naive, it opened my mind up so much I thought I wanted to switch majors and do Philosophy. I also wanted to name my daughter Sophie. As I get older some bits of the book seem a little cheesey but I still enjoy as a whole 🙂

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Anne Fadiman – A couple of friends who I worked with in a book store bought me this for my 24th birthday. It’s about a woman and her books. It was funny, real and I related to her at so many levels that I’ve read this nearly every other year.

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – Before The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, there was The Little Prince. They aren’t exactly the same story but have the same kind of essence … well, at least to me. I remember being so moved by The Little Prince that I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days after finishing the book. It made me re-look the world as I saw it, remember how I saw the world as a little girl … very few things in life do that to me.

Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez – This is another book that I didn’t finish when I first picked it up. It was a couple of years later in Uni and maintaining long distance relationship that helped me relate to his imagery and language. With this book, the end tends to linger on you long after you finish the book … you can’t help but wonder what the couple is up to now. And yes, it’s fictional.

Wild Swans, Jung Chang – By the time I read this, I had outgrown my Communist phase and going into my feminist one. So this was pretty much the perfect book that opened my mind and filled it with possibilities.

A River Sutra, Gheta Mehta – Before I read this I was mostly ignorant about India’s spiritual essence. After I read it, I only know that before I die I hope to spend a couple of months in India and maybe get to write my own sutra of how the river will touch me.

Tales of the Unexpected, Roald Dahl – This is one constantly on my bedside table because I can reread it over and over again. Before Jeffery Archer, there was Roald Dahl 🙂 the ultimate storyteller of twists.

Like books, these are just films that have stayed with me even after I’ve left the cinema or switched off the DVD. You have to have such an effect on me before you get into my Top 10 list 😉

1. ET – I was 7 years old and after the movie, my sister and I secretly hoped that with our own smarties we could lure an alien into OUR home. This was the beginning of all my alien/conspiracy obsession. Sometimes I wonder why I never became a scientist or a military personnel.
2. Toy Story – When I re-watch this, I notice the inadequacies in the 3D animation that I never noticed when I first saw it but the story still affects me every time. This made me realise new techniques will always come and go and become fads but the success of any film is always in the story.
3. Monsters Inc. – And this is the ultimate in stories for me. I haven’t found a loophole and the animation is too good to boot … I’m sure 10years from now, I won’t be saying the same thing but this is my favourite from Pixar.
4. Totoro – Miyazaki either inspires you or bore you. Very simple stories with flawless 2D animation that makes the impossible possible. This is what I reckon the old films from the golden era was about – bringing you into another world for a couple of hours. Totoro did just that for me, with the cutesy Japanese subtleties that make it completely completely irresistible .
5. The Fox and The Hound – Old school Disney animation, I really loved them all but this one about being friends beyond your differences will always have a special place in my heart and why I seriously think fox hunting should be banned.
6. Blue – I loved this French movie, it was part of a trilogy but I especially love this installment … how it dealt with the concept of hopelessness and finding hope again. This movie was why I fell in love with Juliette Binoche and wanted so much to learn French.
7. Crash – When I was thinking of this list, nothing recent came to mind until I remembered Crash, which I haven’t rewatched but for some strange reason remember very clearly.
8. Secret Admirer – I loved all the teen movies of the 80s Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off but my ultimate favourite is Secret Admirer and I was crazy about C. Thomas Howell for the LONGEST time.
9. Moulin Rouge – Same with musicals, I like a lot of them The Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but I really liked Moulin Rouge. It was all these different elements that wouldn’t normally work together, working together. For me, at least 🙂
10. Comrades Almost a Love Story – It was a different romantic film than the typical romance comedy ones that Hollywood churns out annually. One that I reckon only the Chinese culture have the subtle understanding to do. Theresa Teng songs run through my head for days after I watched this film.

When I had a TV, these were TV series that I had followed with a vengeance and if I had all the money in the world, I’d buy every DVD collection of them all :p

1. The X-Files – I remember being home or in front of a TV every Wednesday night. Conspiracy theories and aliens, it just doesn’t get better than this 🙂
2. Rags to Riches – It was a musical comedy series that aired when I was in primary school. About 6 orphan girls whose life change when they get adopted and move into Bel Air. Every once in a while, they break out into song. No surprise I went on to study film and theatre 😉
3. Seinfeld – The best times were when I was studying in Australia and they had Seinfeld reruns everyday at 7pm. Hilarious and at times so very unreal yet stuff that could happen to me and my friends too.
4. The Simpsons – On some strange level I was living vicariously through Bart’s antics. As my Daddy would say, “Nonsense” Yes, nonsense TV at its best :p
5. The West Wing – Where Seinfeld and The Simpsons made me laugh, The West Wing provoked my mind and the kind of stories I wanted to tell. It has some great actors, nice directions and lighting but I love it simply for their scripts.
6. Survivor: Cook Islands – I had stopped watching Survivor but all the news about dividing the teams by race got me intrigued enough to check it out. By then I was completely rooting for Yul, who I still think is the ultimate survivor.
7. Felicity Season 1 – I really liked the first season. It was shot very beautifully made me want to live in NY, with lighting that was unusual for a teen drama. The script was tolerable then but it was downhill after that first season and I couldn’t bring myself to watch another whiny episode.
8. ER – Before Grey’s Anatomy, there was ER with brilliant long shots and medical issues that had some semblance of drama. Nothing against the very yummy McDreamy and McSteamy but compared to the first real medical drama, G.A. is Felicity in a hospital.
9. The Amazing Race – No, I’m not really a reality TV junkie. though I do watch a lot of them. My favourite has to be The Amazing Race, it’s got to be the best in terms of actually testing skills you need in real life 🙂
10. House Season 1 – About 3 years ago, my cousin passed me the first season on DVD and I fell in love with Dr Gregory House. He was, for some strange bizzare reason, a blast of reality check that I completely adored … that and I love investigative stories as well as medical ones, so this was the perfect series for me 🙂