Attempts' Top Ten Posts of 2007

Every time I say something like this I seem to turn around and put up another post within moments, but as currently planned this is my final post for 2007 -- a "best-of" list seems like a good note to end on. Happy New Year to all of my Noble Readers, and (FSM willing) I'll see you in January.

Listing one's own top ten for the year is a meme I've seen elsewhere -- at Hugo Schwyzer's blog, for one -- and I think it's a good one.

I must admit that I could easily have listed twenty. While a lot of posts on this blog are quite intentionally just little squibs, or time-deliminated pieces, I do put a lot of work into my more substantial posts, and I think they tend to hold up well. So after having a look at these ten, if you want more, explore the archives in the sidebar.

Note that unlike some bloggers, I am not listing these in order -- choosing ten was difficult enough! So, alphabetically, here are my ten favorite of my own posts of this year. Check 'em out if you missed 'em:

1. 100 Greatest Pages: Howard Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby, page 131
2. 100 Greatest Pages: J T Waldman's Megillat Esther, page 84
In all honesty, I could probably make a top ten list just from this series: the twelve entries to date are among my very favorite pieces I've done. But I decided, arbitrarily, to limit myself to two. I choose these because I think they may be my best analyses in the series... although on another day I might choose a different two. If you want to read more, indexes of the entire series to date are here: by creator, by title. (And, yes, I do intend to continue the series -- when I find the time, for they are very labor-intensive posts.)

3. Absolution Requires a Commitment Not to Repeat the Sin
A political post: it makes an important point, I think.

4. Changing My Name: A Tale with An Announcement in Lieu of a Moral.
A personal essay.

5. Covering Cerebus (an eight-part series)
I'm cheating here by including this eight-post series as a single entry. But I definitely conceived it as a single long essay, so I'll put it up as one. This is a discussion -- not quite a review -- of Dave Sim's monumental comics series Cerebus, including a lengthy discussion of the covers.

6. Deamonte Driver is Dead and You Can Thank Bill Kristol
Another political post: this one was written in the heat of anger... but despite that, or maybe because of it, I think it holds up. Poor Deamonte Driver!

7. Grief and the Uses of Grief
I put this up on 9/11 this year; but despite a bit of politics, it's really about death and how we relate to death.

8. The Justifications of the Prayers of the War Prayer
The third more-or-less purely political post on this list. This one's all about Iraq.

9. The Writer as Werwolfe: Mixed Thoughts on a Wizard Knight
A long, decidedly mixed review of a two-volume novel by one of my favorite writers, Gene Wolfe. It's hard to review Wolfe, because he's so devious that you're always afraid you're missing something; and it's hard to give a negative review to a writer you like enormously. But I think this came out well just the same.

10. A Zen Tale
Far briefer than the others -- and, unlike them, not really an essay (i.e. not really an "attempt" as I see it). But I like the piece, so I'm including it here.

Bonus round: favorite new feature: random sidebar quotes. This isn't a post as such, but I've wanted to do some version of the random quotes I put over in the sidebar ever since I began this blog. So I'm glad they're there. Reload the page for a new quote; or, if you want to read all the quotes, the entire file is here.

If anyone reading has a blog and put up a top-ten (or howevermany) of their own, please post a link in comments. Or (yeah, right) if anyone remembers fondly any of my other posts from this year, you can mention those too. Otherwise, just enjoy!

See you next year.