The obligatory Top 10s

These are my favorite ten items of the year, not necessarily "the best" (I am not a critic).

Favorite 10 Albums of the Year

REM "And I Feel Fine" (so its a re-issue. sue me.)
The Decemberists "The Crane Wife"
Tom Petty "Highway Companion"
Pet Shop Boys "Fundamental"
Pearl Jam "Pearl Jam"
Bob Dylan "Modern Times"
Indigo Girls "Despite Our Differences"
John Fogerty "Long Road Home Concert"
Johnny Cash "American V"
The Mendoza Line "Full of Light and Full of Fire" (technically, this came out in 2005, but I didn't discover it til this year and it's my list).

Favorite 10 Books of the Year

"The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy
"The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West" by Niall Ferguson
"World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" by Max Brooks
"Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris
"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives" by Cordelia Fine
"Breaking the Spell : Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" by Daniel C. Dennett
"Futureshocks" (anthology)
"The Devil's Own Work : The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America" by Barnet Schecter
"The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan
"Century Rain" by Alastair Reynolds