Spotty Thigh

I likes a good list, I do.

Someone asked me today what my top 10 books are and the thought kept me occupied all way from Soho to SW15... I mean obviously the highbrow choices would have to go in there - I'm a sucker for a bit of George Orwell or John Steinbeck... but does anyone ever admit to their trashy, guilty pleasure favourites?

I don't know if I should actually admit to loving Marian Keyes, like, properly loving her. Everytime I finish one of her novels I want to hug everyone a lot, and I talk in an irish accent for at least a day afterwards. And before you say anything, no, I'm not proud of that fact.

Top 10 books at a push I guess would have to be, in no particular order: Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro), Animal Farm (Orwell), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck), Firestarter (Stephen King), The Amber Spyglass (Philip Pullman); E (Matt Beaumont), Tim (Colleen McCollough), The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger... ridiculous name), Kiss of The Spiderwoman (Manuel Puig), Dracula (Bram Stoker).

A good mix in there I guess but I always feel I should include more 'classics'. I can't help it though, high brow bores me rigid - when I tried to read 'A Single Man' by Christopher Isherwood it took me 20 minutes to read 2 pages, whereas I sped through the latest Lisa Jewell, all 372 pages of it, in less than 24 hours. The books listed above, though, I can reread at any time and still love them.

It's even harder to decide on my favourite music or movies... I went through Spotify (or Spotty Thigh as someone I know used to call it) today to try and streamline my favourite tracks. Too difficult. Just listening to it now I've got the Foo Fighters on, and it's been followed by The Four Tops. They're being followed by Fuzzbox. I don't think I could honestly give you a definitive Top 10 Favouritest Ever Songs list... although I suspect U2, Sam Cooke and The Divine Comedy would feature heavily.

Movies I change my mind on every week. There are some constants though - I don't think I'll ever get tired of Rocky 4, and I'll eat the Rodents before I take In and Out off the list. And of course I've got my selection of film-studiesesque faves... mainly Stanley Kubrick classics and the odd bit of black n white brilliance. I'll probably never get rid of Superman either... or Empire Records... Or Practical Magic... you see what I mean? I like too many to definitely decide on my favourites.

In any case, it's good to keep changing your mind about what you like or don't like. You can't decide on your Top 10 of anything when you're 16 and never change a thing on that list - if that was the case my favourite movie would either be Reservoir Dogs or The Lion King, and my number one favourite song ever would be THIS.

For shame!