Tom’s Treasures

Here’s a post that will describe a few of what I consider the best of the best. What you’ll find in this post are my favorite books, movies, games, music and anything else I can think of to round out a full post. I may have to use a couple parts but I have high hopes for this type of post and the commentary it can potentially generate.

Favorite Movie – Schindler’s List

It made me cry. I thought about this topic for a while and no other movie I can think of made me cry like this one. Any movie that is able to deliver that kind of emotion has to be at the top of the list. Liam Neeson was phenomenal and even though it’s been years since I’ve watched it, that feeling at the end of the movie has never left me. I’ve seen many good movies too and it’s not only the crying factor, this was an all around wonderful movie. I think I may have shed a tear during 7 pounds as well for what it’s worth.

Honorable Mention – Shawshank Redemption, Platoon, Forrest Gump, Goodfellas

Favorite Board Game – Clue

It bothers me that more people don’t like Clue. People think it’s a complicated game and dismiss it. What they don’t realize is that they are missing out on a game that involves trickery, paying attention, and deducing from partial information. It’s a smart person’s game and if you don’t like it… Aside from the games when Bud, Bill, Chris, and myself used to play when we were little, I haven’t found a group of people who actually enjoy Clue. We are trying to get a Risk game together and I’m equally trying to find some Clue participants. Get a clue.

Honorable Mention – Stratego, Scattergories, Chess

Favorite Band – Led Zeppelin

This was pretty easy for me. I was listening to Rock and Roll the other day and every song I listened to after it was dwarfed in comparison. Led Zeppelin makes other music worse. The synergy created from all 4 members make this band legendary. I don’t think anyone has touched the benchmark set by them in 40 years. Here was a post I did a while back about my favorite Zeppelin songs. If I’m ready to rock out, I go with Zeppelin.

Honorable Mention – Beatles. Everyone else is on a different tier.

Favorite TV Show – The Wire

I thought about this for a little while and the answer is the Wire because it ended at the right time. Aside from docks season which was a little whack, every single episode and season delivered. I started drinking Jameson as my drink of choice after mimicking McNulty. Breaking Bad was a close second but I think Bud summed it up perfectly that season 4 didn’t leave a lot unanswered. The 1st half of the 5th season, although good, didn’t need to be. I’ll obviously watch the 2nd half but I think it should have stopped. Knowing when to end a show is important. Bad things happened with Sopranos, Dexter, True Blood… I think Game of Thrones has mighty potential though. I think I watched the Wire in a few weeks time playing episode after episode until my eyes closed. There hasn’t been a better TV show created. I do think it’s a bit unfair though to compare this with a 22 minute episode on a national network.

Honorable Mention – GoT, Breaking Bad, Seinfeld

Favorite Book – Atlas Shrugged

This is a weird pick because I skimmed through 75 pages of John Galt’s speech (I’m sure this could be people’s favorite part) which was entirely overwhelming and the ending action scene seemed incredibly dumb, but for 3 months of reading this book I would be engrossed in the life of Dagney, Reardon, John Galt, and Francisco. I even took notes during this book and I was reading it for fun! The story shed light on different political and life views of characters which was mind opening. I probably missed many relevant parts of this story and forget them to this date but if I ever get the chance, I wouldn’t hesitate to re-read this book. This also made me read the Fountainhead which was also incredibly good.

Honorable Mention – Napoleon Hill The Law of Success & Stephen Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People