Lest old superlatives be forgot.

Even though it's 2006, let's talk about 2005.

Best album: Set Yourself on Fire, Stars. Really really really. Of all the new music that I acquired this year, and really it has been kind of a bumper year in this regard, this is the album that I never get tired of listening to. I am mightily depressed that I have missed both of their trips into Seattle in the last year, but no matter, I will find them eventually. I love this album. I love every track on this album.

Best movie: Syriana. Now granted I still have several 2005 movies to see, including Brokeback Mountain and The Squid and the Whale, and I can't really make a top whatever list yet. But I liked Syriana in the same way that and to an even greater extent than I liked Traffic. It turns out that I heart Steven Gaghan.

Best book: Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell. I can't read fast enough to have already read everything from 2005 that I want to read, and this past year I spent a lot of time reading really old stuff that I had been meaning to get to for a while. But I found this book a perfect amalgam of Sarah-Vowell-snotty-humor and pieces of history that I didn't know very much about.

Best TV: Arrested Development and The Office (tie). I didn't expect to like the American version of The Office, and yet it is wonderful. Steve Carrell is en fuego right now. And someone better pick up Arrested Development, is all I can say. I hate FOX. I also kind of hate HBO, even though I love HBO, because although they make so many wonderful shows, they are cancelling The Comeback, which is right up there on my best-of list.

I have runners-up for all of the above, and maybe I'll work on more extensive lists into the new year, because we know how I love making the lists.

Any favorites from anyone else?