Seven books. Seven horcruxes. Seven Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. It’s an important and recurring theme in the series. I was tempted to rank the series #7 on my Top 100 Everything for that reason alone. (Plus, you know I love the number seven.) In that spirit, here is my Harry Potter story in…
Two items have inspired this post: Today is Harry Potter’s birthday, and my daughter was born earlier this month. The first connection should be pretty obvious, but the latter is important because I’ve been reading the series aloud to her (through three books already!) I will happily discuss these rankings in more detail if anyone…
Shortly after I graduated college in 2010, I got a bit of an itch for old-fashioned liberal arts learning. I decided to undertake the epic, 84-lecture History of the United States lecture series from The Great Courses. I listened to the lectures during my commute to and from work. It was an absolutely fantastic decision…
Today, I’m excited to share an interview with author Jennifer Acres. Her debut novel, On the Way to Simple, hit virtual bookshelves today! I’ve known Jennifer for a few years, and she’s an awesome writer, and as generous and friendly a person as you’ll encounter. In our interview, she shares some of the background to her novel, her writing…
A Song of Ice and Fire is one of my favorite book series. I know this isn’t a particularly novel opinion; with the explosive popularity of HBO’s Game of Thrones, everyone and their aunts are giving George RR Martin’s epic saga a read and discovering how rich, complicated, and satisfying the series is. While my previous look…
Due to my seasonal-related workload, I’m one of those people who gets bummed when the thermometer starts to rise. Summer means stress. Thus, I often get tempted in May and June to find some sort of chilly escape. This year, I read through the short story collection My True Love Gave to Me, which is a series…
Rebekah Shafer is an author who published her first book in October. I met her in a Camp NaNoWriMo group and have been keeping up with her promising career as an author since. Here’s an exclusive interview with her about her first novel, her background as a creative type, and her future projects. Dan: Hey,…
I could probably write a whole series about things that I like more in theory than I do in practice in the pop culture world. A few examples: Sara Bareilles, Fountains of Wayne, Hoosiers, the Elder Scrolls series, and Pandora. But the #1 entry on that list might be fantasy books. It’s crazy for me…
If you’ve been keeping up with the Top 100, it should be little surprise that I’m a fan of young adult fiction in all media. I’m a sucker for coming of age stories — particularly thoughtful, male-oriented (or otherwise non-girly) stories. I’ve decided my unending enjoyment with teen-focused stories is twofold: First, stories with teens…
That’s right, I’m back again, for a final FINAL chapter of “Ten Things Brian Likes.” I won’t stop beating this dead horse ’til it’s glue. In the first half of my honorable mentions, I acknowledged ten more topics about which I’m passionate. Now, to close out the series, I’m returning to the original ten “canonical” categories,…