PRESENT TENSE: YOU can't open a newspaper without finding a list of things from 2010. You can't open this newspaper without finding one. (Go to pages 8 and 9 of Weekend Review and revel in 5,000 words of cultural highlights. I'll wave at you from the top left-hand corner.) Here is a list of the top 10 lists of the year.
1 The Guardian's books of the yearWhy pick this among all others? Because it came out in November, more than a month before the end of the year. The race in journalism is not to the bottom but to get there early, before everyone else has done it. It is a tyranny that racks editors. It is generally considered better to go ridiculously early than embarrassingly late.
2 Time Magazine's apologies of the yearLists can be particularly useful in getting the talking points of the year into a neat, colourful format that says, "We wouldn't normally treat this seriously, but we also know you've talked about these things a lot this year, so we need to find a way to get them in there in some way that's not overly random."
3 BBC News blog's top 10 religion stories of 2010Cue lively dance music, whizzy graphics and Larry Gogan's voice: "Up three to number six it's Irish clerical sex-abuse scandals. Straight in at number four it's cranky Christopher Hitchens's battling both cancer and the faithful. In an all-Christian top 10 there's no place for the violent suppression of Sikh rights activists in Kashmir. But look, there's Big Ian and Martin McGuinness praying together at number three." This is an important list as it shows us that nothing is so criminal, scandalous or horrible that it can't be squeezed into a pithy paragraph and ranked largely randomly.
4 Lacrosse Magazine's top 10 snubs in Lacrosse Magazine's Division 1 rankingsThis one features for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's a list that is esoteric for most people – isn't lacrosse the sport that looks as if tennis got into a threesome with hurling and household chores? – but is clearly very important to lacrossers. Despite its rather cumbersome title, because it was in a handy list format and had a whiff of scandal about it I read it when it popped up on Google News. I'd have put Harvard way higher than number six, though.
5 Every best-album listVillagers featured in the top 10 of many best-album lists in the Irish press. They feature in some UK top 50s but in few top 10s. So are we parochial, are strong Irish acts overlooked by the British press, or both?
6 Time Magazine's books of the yearPaul Murray's Skippy Dieswas number three. If ever a novel has been a sleeper hit, selling relatively few copies early on but gaining a reputation by word of mouth and its inclusion on occasional lists – from the Booker longlist to this one – it is the Irish author's. There is also something in the Irish make-up that means we like to see our own popping up on other countries' lists. It may be down to our own critical judgment being validated by someone who doesn't carry the patriotic baggage. (See number five.)
7 Every best-movies listFilms have two list seasons a year. The end-of-year lists always show a divergence between what the critics liked and what the public paid to see. Oscar season shows a divergence between what the critics liked, what the public paid to see and whatever reason a bunch of lobbied Hollywood types thought The Hurt Lockertrumped Up. It's what makes lists fun.
8 YouTube top 10 videosIt's a global village and all that, but when you see that the world's most popular videos are weighted towards US stories, music videos, broad parodies and Justin Bieber, you can also see that just because something has millions of votes behind it doesn't make it worth remembering. There is no Irish list, although Horse Outsidewould top it. Big lists often don't give you the smaller picture.
9 Time Magazine's top 10 of everything 2010Not one but 50 lists, including tweets, under-reported stories and (again) religious stories (Muslims squeezed in). What makes this particularly useful is that I've been able to include three of them in this list, so stretching a weak premise beyond the top seven it would otherwise have been.
10 Er, this list Am I there yet?Is this list supposed to be in random order or is it a countdown? Okay, then, it's in order. Next week I'll write about the 10 up-and-coming lists to look out for in 2011.
