Books I Read in 2010

I started recording, through the magic of computers, all the books that I read in 2010.  I might have missed a few (particularly books that I re-read this past year) as with most of these kind of projects, the ambition quickly becomes surpassed by the reality.

• Beautiful Children - Charles Bock
• The first book I read in 2010, it was one of those books that is technically quite fine, but failed to leave an impression. The best part was the dedication.
• Generation A - Coupland
• It started off as one of the best books Coupland has written, but quickly turned into every other book Coupland has written

• Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
• Juliet Naked -  Nick Hornby
• Pride and Prejudice with Zombies
• Didn't finish this one - the gag wore off on me too quickly.
• The Golden Compass - Pulman
• What is The What - Eggers
• Mystery Train - Marcus
• Sushi Daze
• How To Be A Canadian - Ferguson
• Rabbit, Run - Updike
• Blood's A Rover - Ellroy
• I wanted this to be better - I had been anticipating this one for years. 
• The Ascent of Money
• Lucky Jim
• Midnight's Children
• Where The God of Love Hangs Out
• Point Omega
• Let The Great World Spin
• What The Dog Saw
• Superfreakonomics
• Too Big To Fail
• The Quants
• Changing My Mind
• Number9dream
• Hokkaido Highway Blues
• Eating The Dinosaur
• All My Friends Are Superheroes
• Realia
• Operation Mincemeat
• Less than a treason: Hemingway in Paris
• I went through another Hemingway phase this year and read biographys about him. No other writer's life really fascinates me as much as Hemingway's does, and I re-read The Sun Also Rises to remember why I was reading all these books about him, and read for the first time True At First Light
• A Multitude of Sins
• Imperial Bedrooms
• Great Apes
• I Was Told There' d Be Cake - Sloane Crosley
• This was a great find this year.
• Atonement
• Comedy by The Numbers
• Maps and Legends
• Never Let Me Go
• Home Sweet Home: My Canadian Album
• Hitch-22
• The Ask
• The War of The World
• Freedom - Franzen
• Who didnt read this book this year? I like the Corrections better though.
• Running with the bulls: My Life With The Hemingways
• Hemingway: The Toronto Years
• City of Thieves
• Zero History
• Leviathan
• American Alone
• Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure
• Await Your Reply - Chaon
• One of the best books I read in 2010.
• True At First Light
• Hocus Pocus
• Imperial
• Liar's Poker
• Earth: The Book
• How Did You Get This Number
• Djibouti
• Inherent Vince
• Wrong About Japan
• The Great Derangement
• The Warhol Gang
• 100 Photos That Changed Canada
• The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• The Wrestler's Cruel Study
• There's A Riot Going On

The Definitive Best Songs of 2010

These are the best songs of 2010. This is a stone cold fact that cannot be disputed. If you have a different opinion, too bad, you're completely wrong.  Update your playlists accordingly.



It was a good year because there was a new Broken Social Scene album. I haven't seen it, but I heard This Movie is Broken wasn't that good - probably because it didn't have Joe Dick in it. This is the best song on Forgiveness Rock Record.



Jack White continues his descent into being the weirder younger brother of Johnny Depp, but damn this song is good.


They announced that they are on hiatus, which is code for the lead singer and the guitar player hate each other. Good album to go out on though.


If you someone said to you that guys from REM and guys from Snow Patrol joined forces, you would start running in the other direction. Which would be too bad, because this is a good song. Get On The Road is an honourable mention for 2010.


I found this song through one of those free song a day podcasts. Most of the songs are crap, but this is one isn't.


This album was supposed to deliver us all from the mediocrity of mainstream and the piousness of alternative rock, to make right what was wrong. It didn't do any of that, but it still had some good songs. Soft In The Center gets an honourable mention.


This song didn't come out in 2010, but screw you, it's my list. What, there are rules to this kind of thing? Listened to this one a lot early last year. Much better song than Sweet Disposition.


He's Canadian, but don't hold that against him. Robots got a lot of attention this year, but if you like that song better than this one, than you're wrong. If you think so, take your ipod and dunk it in a glass of tepid Four Loko and then throw it off the roof into an empty swimming pool.


Wicked song from a wicked band that deserves more recognition.


Another wicked song that puts the bass in your face.

Honourable Mentions:

Heading For Nowhere - Jets Overhead

Coffee Girl - The Tragically Hip

The Mama Papa - Plants and Animals

The High Road - Broken Bells

Blood's Too Rich - Luke Doucet

Swim Until You Can't See Land - Frightened Rabbit

Underdog - e-dubble

A Crime - Sharon Van Etten

It's On Like A Certain Large Ape That Throws Barrels At Stereotypical Italian Plumbers

Nintendo wants to copyright the phrase "It's On Like Donkey Kong" in a shameless PR stunt that coincides with the release of a new Donkey Kong Game.

Mr. Murray on the situation:  "But really, since when is proclaiming your highly cemented corporate identity by trademarking stuff you didn’t come up with a good PR move? Becoming part of the public lexicon is every company’s free advertising dream, except for, say, Exxon or BP Oil, and trademarking publicly generated phrases really cuts into that dream. I mean, it’s not as if the saying is a negative one that needs to be controlled before it harms the company, like my popular catchphrases, “Taco Bell is only good when you’re drunk” and “Even drunk, I won’t eat at McDonald’s.”


Some replacement phrases here.  I'm partial to "A winner is you" from Pro Wrestling, but "Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president" from Bad Dudes more or less sums up American foreign policy during the late '80's. 

The New Ten Commandments

The Hitch breaks out a new Ten Commandments. With video!

Obsolete Jobs

In a few years, we are going to add "print journalist" to this list of obsolete jobs.

This Just In: Killer Whale Kills

A killer whale killed a trainer at Sea World. While tragic and terrible, it's hardly surprising - check the name of the animal. That's what these things do - they kill. And this wasn't the first time this particular killer whale killed someone - this was number three. It's similar to the story about the tiger who ate his owner.


And, this guy is an idiot:

Jack Hanna: Whale Trainers Are Like Astronauts


Here's the money quote that you can read as you do a spit take:

"Larry, didn't our astronauts go up in the space shuttle and we lost them when they came back? It was a terrible thing. They went back up in space, didn't they? We want to learn from space and help mankind. That's what SeaWorld does. These are dangerous animals. This young lady sacrificed her life and would be sitting here today saying she'd do it again for the great work she's done and SeaWorld has done to educate tens of millions of people over the last years."