Each Sunday I post selected books, movies, courses, and other media I finished that week. Today, I’ll see if I can pick the ones I liked the most. I’ll write the categories first, then fill them in after searching this year’s posts. I’m not sure which I’ll remember or forget. I don’t think I read many fiction books.

I don’t usually note podcasts or short videos, but I listen to and watch a lot of them. For example, after finishing each work, I usually watch, listen to, or read five or ten reviews or commentaries if I liked it. For works I love, I might go through far more. After Mulholland Drive, for example, I found tons of sites and videos piecing it together, interpreting it, and so on. A Brighter Summer Day prompted me to learn more Taiwanese and Chinese history on top of many reviews and interpretations.

Before the categories, I have to start with the works that affected me most. Despite most of my focus on America’s founding and maintaining liberty, freedom, equality, and democracy, two works of art I didn’t know about until watching them nearly redefined art for me, A Brighter Summer Day and Tokyo Story, both from decades ago. Not exciting but moving, nuanced, meaningful.

Favorite books (nonfiction):

• Common Sense
• The Choice
• I have to mention authors Gordon Wood (also this link and this link) and Akhil Reed Amar (also this link). I finished a bunch of their books, plus many videos and podcasts. I can’t pick just one, but they raised my understanding of the nation’s founding to appreciate its values.

The Choice brought me to tears, full on bawling. I don’t remember a book that affected me in the moment so much.

Favorite movies (nonfiction):

• Lesson Plan and Die Welle. They go together.
• The Eye of the Storm and A Class Divided
• Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

Favorite books (fiction):

• Venomous Lumpsucker I didn’t like this book but a neighbor lent it to me. I didn’t dislike it, either. I just found it unremarkable. I don’t like science fiction. I’m listing it for accountability and motivation: I only finished one fiction book this year and want to motivate reading more.
• After posting the above, I noticed Ishmael, which is fiction. I also didn’t like it much as a work of fiction, though found some of the ideas interesting. The author could have just written an essay. I don’t think the story around his ideas helped and did distract.

Favorite movies (fiction):

• A Brighter Summer Day
• Tokyo Story

These movies almost redefined movies for me, expanding the boundaries of art for me. They’ve spoiled me for any dramatic movie. I almost don’t even want to watch movies that can be compared if they won’t likely measure up. On the other hand, I want to watch movies that do measure up, some to watch again, like from Fellini, Annie Hall, In the Mood for Love, from Bergman.

Most influential books:

• Common Sense
• The Anti-Jefferson: Why Robert Carter III Freed His Slaves (And Why We Couldn’t Care Less) (actually a short academic paper, followed by the book The First Emancipator, which I also read, though the paper covers the most important parts)
• The Choice
• Lucifer Effect

Most influential movies:

• Lesson Plan and Die Welle. They go together.

Favorite course:

• The courses I lead in sustainability leadership
• Constitution 201 at Hillsdale

What I disliked the most:

• Dirtbag Billionaire makes my skin crawl. Utterly despicable.
• Here Comes the Sun, What If We Get It Right, and This Changes Everything also made my skin crawl though not as despicable

These books are part of why I’ve been saying “I’m not an environmentalist” lately, often clarifying that I value the environment and want to protect it, but I haven’t met anyone who values the environment less than I do. A few books motivated me to dislike environmentalists.

• ← A sidcha and self-awareness update
• This week’s selected media, January 4, 2026: False Alarm, Eve’s Bayou, This America →