Put It on the List

September 07, 2012

I’m a list maker. I have a list for everything in my life: birthdays, anniversaries, grocery shopping, things I need to do, or songs I want to download. I even have a list that records all of my lists.

On my favorite website list is a site called Listverse that serves over 2 million readers. They focus on lists that intrigue and educate—specializing in the bizarre or lesser-known trivia. Every day they present a new and unique list in any one of their fifteen categories—from art and literature to science and nature.

Today, I read two lists that looked interesting to me: The Top 10 Reasons to Admire John Lennon and 10 Recent Space Discoveries. For list makers like me, the site is addictive. In the spirit of adventure, check out this site yourself or put it on your "to-do" list.

I leave you with one of my favorite lists from Listverse, The Top 10 Villains in Literature. It’s a list of 10 bad people we love to hate. Even though I enthusiastically boo the bad guys, it’s those evil villains that drive the story and add a little kick to some great books. How does my list match-up with yours?

A look at ten of the vilest of the vile villains to grace the pages of literary works:

10. The Wicked Witch of the West from Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
9. Pap Finn from Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
8. Count Dracula from Stoker’s Dracula.
7. Sauron from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
6. Aaron the Moor from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.
5. Bill Sikes from Dickens’s Oliver Twist.
4. Police Inspector Javert from Hugo’s Les Miserables.
3. Grendel from Beowulf.
2. Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello.
1. Satan from Milton’s Paradise Lost.

And don’t forget to put Listverse on your list!

~Sandi V.
Parkville Branch