🎵 These are a few of my faaaavorite things… 🎵
Opinions are ephemeral and short-lived. Mine change, and this page will change too.
These lists can’t be exhaustive. There are too many good things in the world. I’ll try to limit myself to around ten items per category. In no particular order.
Books
Visit my Bookshop storefront for more.
(Updated May 2025)
- Area X (series) – Jeff VanderMeer
- Green Bone Saga (series) – Fonda Lee
- House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
- Poison for Breakfast – Lemony Snicket
- Travel Light – Naomi Mitchison
- Borne (series) – Jeff VanderMeer
- Dune (series) – Frank Herbert
- Discworld (series) – Terry Pratchett
- Scott Pilgrim (comic series) – Bryan Lee O’Malley
- The Unwritten (comic series) – Mike Carey & Peter Gross
- Ways of Being (nonfiction) – James Bridle
Books About Writing
(Updated May 2025)
- Consider This – Chuck Palahniuk
- Damn Fine Story – Chuck Wendig
- On Writing – Stephen King
- Becoming a Writer – Dorothea Brande
Short Stories
(Updated May 2025)
- Exhalation – Ted Chiang
- Novelty – John Crowley
- City of Saints and Madmen – Jeff VanderMeer
- Martian (Year One) – Edited by Eric Fomley
Poems
(Updated Oct. 2025)
- Good Bones – Maggie Smith
- Humanity i love you – E. E. Cummings
- Ubu Hubbub – Christian Bök
- anyone lived in a pretty how town – E. E. Cummings
- Earth (in reverse) – J. Hope Stein
- A Light In The Attic – Shel Silverstein
- Ozymandias – Percy Shelley
- The Old Pond – Matsuo Basho
- Let America be America Again – Langston Hughes
- Untitled (from House of Leaves) – Mark Z. Danielewski
Blogs
Blogs. About writing, mostly.
(Updated May 2025)
- Counter Craft – Lincoln Michael, author
- The Third Place – Max Gladstone, author
- Rejectomancy – Aeryn Rudel – writing, and the art of being rejected
- Writer Beware – Victoria Strauss – Exposing scams, frauds, and bad deals targeting writers
- Nathan Bransford – writer, freelance editor, and former agent
- Terrible Minds – Chuck Wendig, author
- Inneresting – The bloggier side of the Scriptnotes podcast
- Rocket Cat Productions – Long-running serial stories of semi-pro wrestling, magic, and various Elas
Podcasts
Podcasts that focus on creativity and storytelling.
(Updated May 2025)
- Scriptnotes – John August & Craig Mazin
- Working it Out – Mike Birbiglia
- Writing Excuses – Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Dan Wells, Erin Roberts, Howard Tayler, and many guests…
Games
Since this is a blog about storytelling, I’m limiting this list (mostly) to narrative-forward games that should be relatively easy for non-gamers to enjoy.
For more, check out my series Games for People Who Prefer to Read.
(Updated May 2025)
- Blue Prince
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- Firewatch
- Gone Home
- The Beginner’s Guide
- Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist
- Fallen London
- The Stanley Parable (Ultra Deluxe Edition)
- Psychonauts & Psychonauts 2
TV
(Updated May 2025)
- Severance – Apple TV+
- Arrested Development
- Firefly
- Over the Garden Wall (animated)
- Knives Out: Glass Onion – Netflix
- Scavengers Reign (animated)
- Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (cartoon)
- Cowboy Bebop (anime)
- Double Fine Psychodyssey (documentary)
Movies
(Updated June 2025)
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Wall-E
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Inception
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- The Matrix
- i ❤️ huckabees
- Hot Fuzz
- Spirited Away
- Arrival
TTRPGs
(Updated October 2025)
- Thousand Year Old Vampire (solo)
- Dungeon World
- Stealing Stories for the Devil
- The Secret World
- Numenera (Destiny & Discovery)
- Curse of Strahd (D&D 5e)
- A Visit to San Sibilia (solo)
Music
Genre is just, like, your opinion, man. Tell me your favorite song in the comments.
(Updated Oct 2025)
- FOR YOU – Antronsongs
- Arizona – Carter Vail
- Dopamine – Wing
- Neveroddoreven – I Monster
- adios – JAWNY
- Morning Blue – Giant Rooks
- Graveyard Love – The Mars Volta
- Asphalt Meadows – Death Cab for Cutie
- John the Revelator – Depeche Mode
- In Hell I’ll Be in Good Company – The Dead South
Words Deferred 