So the new Holiday Guide presents a special new feature! Best Of. That’s right. I got some folks together and asked them to contribute a list of their top ten movies and top ten books. Along with an intro and some pimping of their stuff when I can, we’ll be doing one a day when I have one. I had nothing to do with these lists except soliciting them. The descriptions are the authors’ as are the picks. Remember, I do not write these. The people listed to.

D.J. Kirkbride is a mover, a shaker, dancer, a romancer.

1. Superman - I was born a year before this came out, but I don’t really have any memories before seeing it. Christopher Reeve IS Superman to me. This movie, while flawed (mainly in it’s portrayal of Lex Luthor by the still great Gene Hackman) and dated (though I dig that 70s look), is amazing. It holds up.

2. Citizen Kane - Often movies are described as “classic,” and one feels obligated to like them. No sense of obligation necessary with Kane. This film is ridiculously dark yet fun. It moves a a fast pace and is very innovative. Almost as interesting is how it was made. The DVD out has a documentary about the making of the movie that’s almost as interesting as the movie itself.

3. Airplane! - Funniest movie EVER. Seriously. This movie had enough jokes to make the lil’ kid version of me laugh while a whole other half of it went over my head. To this day, I still quote it and laugh at it.

4. Harold and Maude - Maybe the most messed up love story to be captured on film. 18-year-old (I think he’s 18 in this…) Harold is obsessed with death. Soon to be 80-year-old Maude is obsessed with life… on her own terms. This movie makes me laugh and breaks my heart at the same time. It might be perfect.

5. Grosse Pointe Blank - John Cusack is a hitman, but what a person does for a living shouldn’t define what he is. When he gets an invite for his 10 year high school anniversary, he can’t help but check in on the “one that got away” — his high school sweet heart. Fast talking, genuine romance, great music, and some crazy violence result. This movie doesn’t have a boring second, and I really wish they’d made the sequel Cusack mentioned a while back. (Though they might’ve come close with War, Inc. — yet to be released.)

6. Shaun of the Dead - Zombies usually just gross me out and make me squeamish, but this romantic comedy that happens to have zombies has swayed me. If it were just about Shaun and his estranged girlfriend and his best friend, I’d be down. Throwing real brain eating zombies adds a whole ‘nother dimension. As funny as it is scary.

7. Clerks - This movie made me really want to make movies. Shot in grainy black and white, it’s so low budget that it sometimes just seems real. Great, insane dialog that initially earned it an NC-17 rating. I can’t believe I let my then 12-year-old sister watch it with me when I first rented it, but I wanted to watch it again before it was due back to the video store.

8. Magnolia - Crazy long, unruly, and chock full of frogs falling from the sky — Magnolia is a glorious mess of a movie. Never have I seen such unabashed melodrama so well done. An amazing cast and a messy story. It’s great. When I first saw it in the theatre, I ignored my near bursting bladder and had to relearn how to walk when it was over, but it was worth every minute.

9. Ghostbusters - For a years, I found this funny, but recently I’ve realized that this g-damn movie holds up like a champ. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis — all PERFECT. This movie doesn’t skimp on the ghosts and weirdness while also being completely hilarious.

10. The Royal Tenenbaums - Like most Wes Anderson movies, it took me a second viewing to fall in love with it, but daddy issues and quirks have never been more entertainingly displayed, for me anyway, than in this movie. I love it. It makes me laugh and breaks my heart. Amazing.

Top 10 Books - These are harder because my reading retention level has steadily gone down over the years. Seriously, I can’t quote passages of books or really even discuss them due to shit memory. It scares me. Anyway…

1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - The first Michael Chabon book I read. Just a wonderful tale of the Golden Age of comics with all sorts of historical characters and a lot of heart. The character Kavalier & Clay created, The Escapist, is great in his own right and now has some fun comics out there.

2. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - As sad as it is funny, this autobiography of Eggers raising his little brother after both of their parents pass on too soon isn’t the downer it sounds like. It’s quirky, interesting, fun, and finds a lot of hope where I personally would’ve just sunk into despair.

3. Franny and Zooey - Two stories about sister and brother Franney and Zooey Glass. I am a big Salinger fan, and this one is my favorite. It’s all about character and emotional oddities and existential crisis of former child geniuses just trying to live their adult lives. If your a Wes Anderson fan, see where he got a lot of his inspiration.

4. The Hotel New Hampshire - I discovered John Irving in college and went through a major phase. I honestly am not sure why sometimes, but a lady in a bear suit, creepy hotels, and a brother who can’t help but be in love LOVE with his sister… it’s fucked up, but the story works. There’s a movie version with Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe that… well… just read the book.

5. Slaughterhouse-Five - A man named Billy Pilgrim gets “unstuck in time,” jumping to different points in his life — when he was a POW in WWII, with his family, and on another planet with a naked movie star being watched by aliens, to name a few. It’s insane and amazing. Not a dull moment. Author Kurt Vonnegut was a g-damn national treasure.

6. Another Roadside Attraction - Tom Robbins writes nutty, thought provoking, and humorous like a champ. This book features a roadside hot dog stand / flea circus run by a fortune teller and her new husband, lots of other stuff, and the bones of Jesus Christ.

7. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- The best way to read this is to just get one of those collections of all 5 books plus the short story in this trilogy (yes, a 5 book, 1 story trilogy). It starts at the end of the world and goes from there. Lots of Monty Python-esque humor and philosophical zaniness from the late, great Douglas Adams.

8. Naked - David Sedaris’s essays are almost always hilarious. His recollections from his life ring true (even if they’re not — I can’t know for sure). This is his second collection (I think), and it’s my favorite, but they’re all really fun.

9. People’s History of the United States - Forget what you learned in junior high history class — apparently it wasn’t all cherry trees and telling the truth. Historian Howard Zinn’s sprawling, sad, upsetting, and very interesting book is a must read for anyone remotely interested in how this big ol’ country came to be.

10. A Confederacy of Dunces - The lead character in this book, Ignatious J. Reilly, hates mordern pop culture and fancies himself better than the rednecks around him. But, the truth is, he’s pretty gross and mean to his mom. It’s also a hoot to read about him and get inside his creepy head. The story of how the book came to be published is an interesting tragedy. After author John Kennedy Toole, took his own life, his mother found the manuscript for Confederacy and demanded college professor William Percy read it. He was reluctant but ended up loving it and shepherding it’s publication after which it won numerous awards and became a classic.

You can also buy The Dead Walk Again! which features Kirkbride’s story ‘Married Alive’. You can also buy Popgun Vol. 1 which contains Kirkbride’s comic book hilarity in SOULLESS.