My Absolute Favorites

Today I thought that since you know almost nothing about me, I'll write a little about my favorite stuff. I've decided to pick one book, one TV show and one song that have been my absolute favorites for the last six months.

1) Books

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

I have a confession to make. I've picked this one not just because of the exciting plot, vivid characters and unexpected twists. I loved the actual BOOK - the printed London Green Penguin edition with original illustrations by Quentin Blake. Everything about it is great - I love how the pages smell, the paper feels and also the fact that it has some fun bonus features like what Roald Dahl's writing place looked like and how he was addicted to chocolate.

Now for the story. It actually is a tale for kids until it's not. If I read it as a child, I'm a 100% sure I would get scared at some parts. A fat kid gets sucked out of the chocolate river into a pipe going God knows where. Will he get out alive? No one knows. And oompa lumpas - the weird midget workers at the factory start singing a song saying the kid's earned it. Creepy, right? Some crazy stuff happens to other 3 kids, and only Charlie is "unchanged" by the end of the book.

The story has a straight message: don't eat too much, don't watch TV all day long, don't chew gum for too long, and don't think you'll get everything you want from your parents. The moral is simple, the story itself is pretty much simple, too. So what is it, that makes this book so appealing? The atmosphere of magic, adventure, and suspence! The letter from Willy Wonka to the Golden Ticket winners started like this: "Tremendous things are in store for you! Many wonderful surprises await you!" This is pretty much the book description: this magic world of the chocolate factory is so unexpected!

2) Songs

Crazy On You
 
For the last year or so, I've been picking up new music from movies, TV series, commercials, etc. So about three months ago I was watching the trailer for the new Jake Gyllenhaal movie "Demolition", and there it was - "Crazy On You" by Heart. I fell in love with it from the first couple of chords. It was just so energetic and so freeing. Whenever I was listening to it, it somehow appealed to me, whatever the mood I was in.

The song has everything I need from it musically: an intriguing intro, a racing rhythm and a simple, but great bass line [though I'm not sure whether it's bass or guitar]. And then there are these hysterical and powerful vocals. Anyway, the song somehow gets me still after three months of listening. What can I say - not many do the same.

3) TV Series

The Americans 

I try not to pick TV series with more than one season lately, but after I watched a couple episodes of "The Americans", I thought I'll give this one a try. Good thing is, I never binge-watched it, kept it to 1 episode every two days, maybe a couple through the weekend. But that doesn't mean it was not good enough. It was a great show.

Two young KGB agents come to the US during the Cold War, fit in, raise two kids and lead a normal American life. Except the fact that they don't. They have to complete lots of dangerous missions the Center puts them on. And meanwhile, they lie to their kids, to their neighbor who's an FBI agent and to their employer - a traveling agency.

The creator of the show is a former CIA agent. I think he actually knows a thing or two about the spies.

The show's not vanilla, it's actually brutally honest about both the KGB spies and the Americans. And I don't remember any of it being boring. What's also interesting, the main characters do develop throughout the story. They were incredibly patriotic in the beginning. Now they are exhausted and questioning the importance of the whole job that they do. It's 2 more seasons left - and I can't wait to see what happens next.

So here was my list of absolute favorites for these past six months. Please share yours in the comments.

image credit: intern.blogs.american.edu