Sam J. Miller

Lists of favorites

… in no particular order

FAVORITE BOOKS

• Ulysses (James Joyce)

• Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)

• Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)

• Another Country (James Baldwin)

• War With The Newts (Karel Capek)

• Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)

• Eichmann in Jerusalem (Hannah Arendt)

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Malcolm X and Alex Haley) 

• Macbeth (William Shakespeare)

• The Devil’s Playground (Nan Goldin)

• I Am Legend (Richard Matheson)

• Before Night Falls (Reinaldo Arenas)  

• Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)

• Death and the Maiden (Ariel Dorfman)

• Refresh, Refresh (Benjamin Percy)

• On Photography (Susan Sontag)

• Edinburgh (Alexander Chee)

• Closer (Dennis Cooper)

• The Annunciation (Ellen Gilchrist)  

• Glamorama (Bret Easton Ellis)

• Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)

• The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

• Just Above My Head (James Baldwin)

• Four Quartets (T.S. Eliot)

• The Swimming-Pool Library (Alan Hollinghurst)

• Life Drawing (Michael Grumley)

• Blues Legacies and Black Feminism (Angela Davis)

• Naked Lunch (William S. Burroughs)

• The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

• The Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick)

• Red Cavalry (Isaac Babel)

• Hopscotch (Julio Cortazar)

• Hope Against Hope (Nadezhda Mandelstam)

• Querelle of Brest (Jean Genet)

FAVORITE MOVIES

• Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)

• Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein)

• All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

• Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch)

• Happy Together (Wong Kar Wai)

• Where Is My Friend’s House? (Abbas Kiarostami)

• The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)  

• The Ice Storm (Ang Lee)  

• King Kong (Schoedsack & Cooper)

• Candyman (Bernard Rose)

• Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

• Alien (Ridley Scott)

• The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg)

• Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir)

• M (Fritz Lang)

• The Searchers (John Ford)

• Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone)  

• Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)

• Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu)

• Bamboozled (Spike Lee)

• The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)

• The Gospel According to Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

• I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov)

• Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

• Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski)

(…if for some reason you want more details on why I love the things I love, click here for a link to all my product reviews on Amazon…)

 FAVORITE SONGS

• Like a Prayer (Madonna)

• You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me (Smokey Robinson)

• La Vie En Rose (Grace Jones)

• The Passenger (Iggy Pop)

• The Long Black Veil (Johnny Cash)

• Like A Virgin (Madonna)

• La Vie En Rose (Edith Piaf)

• The Silver-Tongued Devil and I (Kris Kristofferson)

• Ups and Downs (Saves the Day)

• Dance, Dance (Fall Out Boy)

• I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)

• Holiday in Cambodia (Dead Kennedys)

• Slip Away (Clarence Carter)

• When You Were Young (The Killers)

• Secret Meeting (The National)

• Bombs over Baghdad (Outkast)

• Good Good Things (The Descendents)

• Angel Gone (Beat Happening)

• Master of Puppets (Metallica)

• That’s How Strong My Love Is (Otis Redding)

• He’s Sure The Boy I Love (The Crystals)

• These Arms of Mine (Otis Redding)

• He’s A Rebel (The Crystals)

• Full Disclosure (Fugazi)

• Letter to Memphis (The Pixies)

• Monkey Gone To Heaven (The Pixies)

• By Your Side (Sade)

• All I’m Losing Is Me (Saves the Day)

• Float On (Modest Mouse)

• Thousands are Sailing (The Pogues)

• Tell Yourself (Natalie Merchant)

• A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke)

• Man in Black (Johnny Cash)

• Ain’t That News? (Sam Cooke)

• Field Day for the Sundays (Wire)

• Straight to Hell (The Clash)

• Garageland (The Clash)

• Hateful (The Clash)

• Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle (Nirvana)

• I Would Rather Go Blind (Etta James)

• American Jesus (Bad Religion)

• Play With Fire (Rolling Stones)

• Bodies (Sex Pistols)

• China Girl (David Bowie)

• How the West was Won and Where it Got Us (REM)

• Don’t Go Back to Rockville (REM)

• The Good Life (Weezer)

• No One Else (Weezer)

• Atomic (Blondie)

• Call Me (Blondie)

• Gimme the Car (Violent Femmes)

• Hanging On the Telephone (Blondie)   

• Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (Nina Simone)

• House of the Rising Sun (The Animals)

• Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley)

• Don Giovanni Overture (Mozart)

• Fuck and Run (Liz Phair)

• To Bring You My Love (PJ Harvey)

• St James Infirmary (Perez Prados)

• Commissioning A Symphony In C (Cake)

FAVORITE VIDEO GAMES

• Mega Man 3 (NES)

• Castlevania 3 (NES)

• Mega Man 2 (NES)

• Mega Man Z4 (Game Boy Advance)

• Super Metroid (Super Nintendo)

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation, PSP)

• Castlevania: Circles of the Moon (Game Boy Advance)

• Ninja Gaiden 2 (NES)

• Double Dragon 2 (NES)

• Zanac (NES)

• Ninja Gaiden (NES)

• The Castlevania Adventure 2: Belmont’s Revenge (Game Boy)

• Castlevania: Bloodlines (Sega Genesis)

• Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance)

• Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy)

• Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance)

• Golden Axe (Arcade)

• Metroid 2: Return of Samus (Game Boy)

• Dragon Warrior 3 (NES)   

FAVORITE POETS

• Adrienne Rich

• Sharon Olds

• Osip Mandelstam

• Langston Hughes

• Adam Zagajewski

• Seamus Heaney

• Anna Akhmatova

• Yusef Komunyakaa

• T.S. Eliot

• Galway Kinnell

• Audre Lorde

• William Carlos Williams

• Federico Garcia Lorca

• June Jordan

• Kenneth Rexroth (’s translations from Chinese and Japanese)

• Joseph Brodsky

• William Shakespeare

• Vladimir Mayakovsky