@avclub-d4c5630db0ec3444ec43c0982a9e83d3:disqus If that wouldn't cause you an undue amount of trouble to post that would be amazing.  Thanks a lot!  And thanks for posting the original LIST comment in the first place and sparking all this discussion!

Hahaha, yeah, I don't watch a ton of TV to be honest.  So when I say The Americans is the best show I've seen this year, I definitely don't mean that it's undeniably the best show on TV this year, because of all the highly regarded shows that I haven't seen (Mad Men, Justified, Orphan Black, Orange Is the New Black,…

I'm planning to start Suttree pretty soon.  Glad to hear you thought it was good.  Apart from the style, how do you think it compared with his other stuff?

Your research sounds like it's both really interesting and incredibly depressing in the way it seems to focus on some of the most repressive Western cultures around.

No, it's mostly a fun read with an uncomfortably explicit 100 page section with way too much sex and this thing with an unpronounceable name that makes for a nice break from all the unnecessary sex.  It's not quite on par with the first one, but it's still really good.  Hope you enjoy it.

Rothfuss is Mormon?

Out of curiosity, have there been any laureates who  you've found underwhelming, or conversely with whom you've been unexpectedly impressed?

Speaking of adding award-winners to your doom list, and considering the fact that your doom list is already so massive that a few dozen more novels can't hurt so it can't hurt to add this observation/kind-of-suggestion, and the fact that you've mentioned planning to read some scifi/fantasy between your doom list…

That seems like an awesome idea, such an awesome idea that I think I might compile a similar list of shittons of classics that will take forever to read.  Thanks!

Earthsea is great.  Haven't read any of them since high school (I'm very grateful to my freshman English teacher that we read the first Earthsea novel instead of Eragon, which half the other teachers had their kids read for some horrible reason), but I remember them being awesome.

The Problem of Susan was amazing, and every bit as good as all the other great Narnia-from-an-atheist's-perspective stories (namely Pullman' His Dark Materials, and Grossman's Magicians trilogy) out there.  It's crazy impressive how Gaiman manages to write in other authors' fictional universes without his ideas…

Fragile Things is great.  Is Forbidden Brides… the one where (spoilers?) the author in the bizarre horror-fantasy world decides to write "fantasy" from his perspective and ends up writing about some woman making toast in the real world?  Because that was definitely one of my favorites too.  October in the Chair was…

I've been slowly working my way through Infinite Jest for most of the month.  It's been slow going, but it's also been just as awesome as it's made out to be.

@hotaugustlunch:disqus , you always play psychologist with me.

From the one episode I've seen, it totally deserved to win Show Whose Creator's Name is Most Likely to be Revealed as a Pseudonym for Tommy Wiseau.

The castration scene was easily the worst thing to ever happen on that show.  It marked the point where a plot that was legitimately terrifying in the books officially entered Trashy Torture Porn Town in the show.

And, on a tangentially related note, the best way to make a movie that places Norse mythology in a modern setting and is more awesome than the Thor movies would be for somebody to make a film adaptation of Sandman or American Gods.

But with a hypothetical Best Wedding category GoT would have to compete with Ben and Leslie's wedding from Parks and Rec.

Best show of the year thus far is easily The Americans for me.  With Game of Thrones, Adventure Time, and Parks and Rec all highly enjoyed as well.

I haven't gotten around to The Next Day yet, but is the fact that it doesn't hold up to his best albums really surprise when The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is over 40 years old?  If anything, it's crazy impressive that Bowie's still making relevant music after all this time.