Books: Candide by Voltaire, Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss, The Year Of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, Welcome To The Jungle by Hilary Smith, Beyond Good And Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche.
I read a lot of philosophy. In general, I like a lot of the agnostic/atheist philosophers more than the theists, but that's not necessarily because of their religious beliefs. I guess I am drawn to satire and outright mocking in the works of my Dead White Guys, and the theists weren't quite as acerbic. (You get bonus points if the word acerbic makes you think "ACID BURN!" too.)
I'm a Psychology major, and I often end up doing extracurricular reading. I have multiple books on almost every Axis 1 disorder, many of which are from the perspectives of sufferers. I myself have struggled with mood and anxiety disorders for years, so I also find these books kind of comforting, in that they help me feel connected to someone or something.
Movies: (500) Days Of Summer, Cannibal: The Musical, Clerks, Clerks II, Closer, Cruel Intentions, Clueless, Definitely, Maybe, Eurotrip, The History Of The World Part 1, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, High Anxiety, I'm A Cyborg (But That's Okay), Josie and the Pussycats, Mozart and the Whale, My Sassy Girl*, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, Scott Pilgrim VS The World, The Usual Suspects.
I love it when directors tell the story in an unusual way - unreliable narrators, stories out of sequence, stories within stories. I also love plain old screwball comedy fun. I am probably the most academic person I know who not only owns a copy of Eurotrip, but bought it the day it was released.
I also love really terrible movies. I've played drinking games to Hackers something like 3 times now, and it never gets old. (I have the advantage of having never deigned to watch Hackers sober, however.) I also love the "updated" Nick Cage Wicker Man (OH GOD NOOOOOO NOT THE BEES) and intentionally ridiculous stuff like Grindhouse and The Machine Girl. I have recently discovered Tommy Wiseau's The Room, and it's pretty much like porn for bad movie lovers (not that it's not pretty much like porn in general.)
Video Games: Dance Dance Revolution, In The Groove, Pop'n Music, Pokemon, Mario Tennis, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Yoshi's Island, Lumines.
In general, I like rhythm games and puzzle games and not much else. I wouldn't really call myself a gamer because of that - I'm so niche and I wouldn't want to make somebody think that I'm anything I'm not. I like some classic platformers, all of the Pokemon Game Boy and DS games, and weird games that don't fit into any categories (like Katamari,) but in general I'm pretty boring when it comes to my taste in games.
As of 1/2/11, I am currently having a blast playing through Donkey Kong Country Returns with my husband. I will say, though, that we're at the end of World 3 and so far have only seen one mine cart level... tsk tsk.
Music: This is best broken into categories.
- 90s Adult Alternative: My favorite genre. Gin Blossoms, Blues Traveler, Third Eye Blind, Goo Goo Dolls, Fastball.
- Oldies/Motown: The stuff on which I was raised. Sam Cooke, Diana Ross and the Supremes, anything produced by Phil Spector, Leslie Gore, Carole King, The Toys.
- 90s/Early 2000s Pop-Punk: What can I say? I was young then. Blink 182, Green Day, Unwritten Law, Allister, All-American Rejects.
- Europop: I play dance games. It grows on you. Smile.dk, Aqua, Toy-Box, Crispy, Ni-Ni, Creamy.
- Asian Pop: Mostly left over from when I was in middle/high school. Speed, Morning Musume, Matsuura Aya, Fukada Kyoko, Hysteric Blue, Be For U, Lee Jung Hyun, BoA, Jjang Nara, and most recently SNSD.
- Musicals: I'm from New York, so I saw a lot of these as a kid. I usually like funny ones - Hairspray, Avenue Q, Reefer Madness, Little Shop Of Horrors, The Wedding Singer. I also like some of the "classics" - RENT, Grease, Bye Bye Birdie. I have never been able to force myself to sit through all of Oklahoma! or Cats. My favorite actresses/singers are Kristin Chenoweth and Amy Spanger.
*The Korean one, not the terrible Elisha Cuthbert straight-to-video localization disaster.
