The Top 10 Reasons to Make (and Love) Top 10 Lists

“ ‘Year-end top 10 film list’ season sometimes feels like a game of ‘Compare every apple and orange you ate this year. Be specific.’ ”

“It was almost like completing a mini-journal of the year that had just passed,” he told me. “Relistening to albums and making lists was a nice way to put the year to bed.”

To revisit these lists is to be reminded of both the movies I once loved and the lives I once led.

In compiling my 2011 list, am I comparing apples to oranges? Of course. But I’d argue that comparing apples to oranges — the ability to consider, and describe, how the crisp, sharp bite of an apple differs from the juicy, decadent gush of an orange — is the great pleasure of the critic’s job, and of a fan’s love.

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