‘Tis the season for everybody to do year-end lists of things. Best-of lists, top-rated lists, all manner of things in sequence and with bullet points. We here at Olivia Waite love lists, but we do not always feel capable of competing with the expertise of others in film, music, books, art, joke-telling, or pretty much anything else. But we have spent a lot of time reading lists this year, and we’ve compiled a rather extensive list of our favorites below, with appropriate nesting and linkage. Not all lists are from 2011, but all of them are great.

Enjoy!

• 6 Fictional Villains Who Accidentally Saved the Day
  
• Selected lists from McSweeney’s Internet Tendency:
  • Comments And Questions In My Greek History Discussion Section On Spartan Society
  • Thirty-Nine Questions For Charlie Daniels Upon Hearing “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” For The First Time In 25 Years
  • Lesser-Known Movie Prequels
  • Elements Patiently Waiting For Inclusion On The Periodic Table
  • Seven Bar Jokes Involving Grammar and Punctuation
• Selected Wikipedia lists:
  • Lists of lists
  • List of unsolved problems in philosophy
  • List of inventors killed by their own inventions
• An excellent, searchable list of apple varieties
• The 20 unhappiest people you meet in the comments sections of year-end lists, via NPR
• The pros and cons of making a pros and cons list, via The Oatmeal
• Selected lists of brain-spanking advice from freelance penmonkey extraordinaire Chuck Wendig:
  • 25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters
  • 25 Things You Should Know About Storytelling
  • Lies Writers Tell
• Selected list songs:
  • “All the Countries of the World,” from the Animaniacs
    
  • “Joseph’s Coat,” from Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat—the hard-core listing comes at the end
    
  • “The Elements” by Tom Lehrer
    
  • “You’re the Top” by Cole Porter