these are the things i like:

music: cary brothers, the beatles, bob dylan, cat stevens, paul simon, spoon, radiohead, coldplay, elliott smith, ray lamontagne, jose gonzales, postal service, nick drake, the shins, hendrix, sly and the family stone, led zep, neil young, rufus wainwright, ryan adams, the faces, the police, ben harper, ben kweller, otis redding, sam cooke, desmond decker, marley, toots and the maytals', "funky kingston", james taylor, miles davis, art blakey, gary jules, alexi murdoch, lazlo bane, jason kanakis' guitar as well as his tour managing skills, the smiths, the cure, velvet underground, lou reed is a god, franz ferdinand, cat power, wilco, lori mckenna, gillian welch, mott the hoople, bowie, sam beam, badly drawn boy, bright eyes, lou donaldson, jack johnson, travis, rachael yamagata, modest mouse, the replacement brothers, interpol, the flaming lips, the decemberists, the weepies, snow patrol, athlete, imogen heap, buddy, knifeyhead, damien rice, norah jones, mandy moore, brett dennen, jessie baylin, steve reynolds, aimee mann, michael penn, colin hay, fiona apple, feist, broken social scene, jeff buckley, bruce springsteen, aimee mann and michael penn, oli kraus' cello, jon flower's bass, chris holmes and yum yum, regina spektor, fiona apple, amos lee, remy zero, sia, anything bruno likes, jordan seay, brett dennen, jessie baylin, corinne bailey rae, turin breaks, teitur, beck, the stones, van morrison (especially astral weeks) - well let's just say that the best records ever made are pet sounds, astral weeks, revolver, let it bleed and highway 61 revisted...

books: i guess these are the novels that made lasting impressions, in no order, just off the top of my head: the brothers k, magic mountain, the glass bead game, nausea, the stranger, the trial, plato's symposium, the clown, notes from underground, crime and punishment, moby dick, the entire salinger collection, especially franny and zooey, anything by sedaris, sentimental education, anything by oscar wilde, especially the portrait of dorian gray, man and superman, or anything by george bernard shaw, the leopard, the dwarf, old goriot, i don't know, you get the picture, a lot of frenchmen, like sartre, camus, balzac, flaubert, some germans, mann, hesse and bohl, and of course, anything russian - all tolstoy, dostoyevsky, turgenev, pushkin, gogol, etc... - tend to gravitate towards the nobel prize winners and the writers who influenced them. just don't have the time for grisham, who's got the time?

movies: annie hall, manhattan, or anything by woody - he's tops with me. the graduate, the bicycle thief, dr. strangelove, being there, harold and maude, citizen kane, rebel without a cause, apocalypse now (not the redux), the fisher king, the seventh seal, 400 blows, cuckoo's nest, chinatown, life is beautiful, anything by the coen bros., garden state, wes anderson's flicks, anything written by charlie kaufman, oh, and let's not forget anything christopher guest has ever been a part of. t.v. : da ali g show (sacha cohen is the funniest person on the planet right now) seinfeld, the simpsons, curb your enthusiasm, arrested development, six feet under, the sopranos, the daily show, strangers with candy (amy sedaris should marry sacha cohen and all would be good in the world when their children arrived) scrubs. so there ya go.