Novel

Plural. Because: two is always better. And, both of these are doorstoppers, too. Doorstoppers I didn’t want to go over, whose labyrinths I’m still plunging through, faster and faster:

Poetry

It came out in 2020, but I only read it in January or so of 2021. Stuck with me all year. And I’ll probably be reading it again. Which is to say: I agree with the Pulitzer committee:

Fight Scene

A new category, but this scene warrants it:

runner up for fight scene on a bus? Shang Chi

Horror Film

How about a two-way tie, again? Otherwise I’ll be here all day long.

both vampires, right? weird, I know. can’t explain

But, man, any of these, in another moment, can be in that tie:

Hunter Hunter is 2020 and bigfoot one is **201**8, yeah . . .

Non-Horror Movie

Yes, these exist. Crazy, right?

this gallery is also, apparently, a “facial hair for men” gallery . . .

Documentary

Not sure when it came out, but, man, did I inhale this. I missed the Dr. J era, only started tuning into ball during Jordan times — was too busy playing to do something so boring as sit down and WATCH — but, man, to have seen him fly:

a class act, that dude. we should all strive to be Him

Also learned so much from:

News Item

This was the YEAR to be tuned in, yes? Amazing, amazing, game-changing stuff in the hominem/paleo- fields:

Nonfiction

Plenty of excellent reads here, too:

a FAVORITE, though? man. um, um, okay: either the serial killer one or the hair metal one

Comic Book

Another hard call. Dug a whole lot of stuff this year. How about, for a “favorite” . . . one graphic novel, and one series? Can I slide by with that? Not looking up the dates, but I suspect these aren’t “2021,” as might be sort of proper in a 2021 list. But? I did read them in 2021. Bad Girls is so alive, in every way a comic book should be, and Black Hammer, man: can LeMire even write a bad story? If so, I’ve yet to read it.

though, I did catch up on Manifest Destiny this year: amazing

Short Story

Man, this category is no easier for me. So: two (one of which is pre–2021, but I only read it this year)

Podcast

They get us all through, don’t they? Here’s the three I dialed up the most this year:

and, yeah, I guested on one of these. but? maybe I end up on the other two as well . . .

Non-Horror Novel

Another category it probably seems like I’m making up, yes? Wrong. THIS GENRE IS ACTUALLY REAL:

(should confess: I know all these writers in this category, looks like. oops)

New-to-Me Books/Writers

Don’t know how I missed them. Don’t know what I’d do without them:

Television Show

Easy call:

But, that wasn’t the only amazing thing I caught:

which is to say, yeah, haven’t dialed up *Squid Games* yet, or that chess show, and somehow haven’t even watched *Sweet Tooth*, though I’ve read some of it

Story Collection

All amazing / four-way tie:

Music

It’s weird, but, somehow, back when it was happening, I’d completely missed out on these two bands:

thanks to John Boden for the intro to one of them, I think

So, been peeling through their stuff. And digging it. Also, for the first time, only about twenty years later than everyone else, I heard my first Papa Roach song. And liked it. May be hunting their stuff down as well. But, yeah, and again, this year was a lot of Bob Seger for me, a lot of Merle Haggard, plenty of Townes Van Zandt, and, as always, lots of Meat Loaf and Footloose and Grease. I’m thinking about retiring my “country” playlist off my phone, since it’s 24 hours long, and has a pretty big data footprint, but, first, I’m feeling out Apple Music’s country stations, seeing if they can stand in. Or, if I can up-thumb and down-thumb enough to where they kind of cater to what I want to hear, anyway. Which is pretty much just Waylon Jennings and Roseanne Cash, and all points in between.