Favorites of 2011!

Here it is, the post you've all been waiting for... or not :-)   I've compiled a list of my favorite things of 2011. Keep in mind, these are my favorites, not necessarily the best, according to critics and the like. Some were brand new things that were introduced this year, while others I just happened to read, watch, buy or consume this year. Nothing is ranked in order, as that would take entirely too long for me. Enjoy, and share your own favorites for the year in the comments section!

Reading

Books

The Help

The Hunger Games trilogy

The Firm

Magazines

Entertainment Weekly

Good Housekeeping

Television

TV Shows 

The Middle

The Sing Off

Downsized

The Voice

The Closer

Parks and Recreation

Modern Family

New (2011) Shows

Revenge

The Glee Project

Up All Night

New Girl

Switched at Birth

Guilty Pleasures

Pretty Little Liars

Sister Wives

The TO Show

Dance Moms

Real Housewives of Atlanta & New York   

Music

CDs

Adele "21"

The Cocktails "Another Round"

Bruno Mars "Doowops and Hooligans"

Kelly Clarkson "Stronger"

Florence and the Machine "Ceremonials"

Maroon 5 "Hands All Over"

Songs

"Rolling in the Deep" Adele

"Moves Like Jagger" Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera

"Perfect" Pink

"Not Over You" Gavin Degraw

"Til the World Ends" Britney Spears

"Skyscraper" Demi Lovato

"Poison and Wine" The Civil Wars

"Without You" David Guetta & Usher

"Mr. Know It All" Kelly Clarkson

Movies 

2011 Releases

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Super 8

The Muppets

Bridesmaids

Technology

Blogs

Southern Savers

Reality Blurred

Pop Candy

The A Cappella Blog

Suri's Burn Book

Apps

Hanging with Friends

IMDB Trivia

Spotify

Flixster

TripAdvisor

Shopping

New Beauty Products

New Food Finds 

Okay friends! Now it's your turn!

Get Spotifyed!

I know that some of you have already discovered the joys of Spotify, but for those who haven't yet, I just wanted to fill you in. For a simple description, I guess it's kind of a mixture of iTunes and Pandora. You download the program from the internet at Spotify.com. There is a free version and a paid version. I'm not sure of all the differences between the two, except that there are no advertisements on the paid version. (If anyone else can enlighten, feel free!)

Anyway, it's basically like having the biggest iTunes account in the world! You can listen to whatever you want, whenever you want, and make playlists or star songs so that you don't have to constantly search for the same song to listen to. For me, it's been awesome because I can listen to entire albums. Since we are on such a budget, Jamie and I have not been able to buy music like we've done in the past. Spotify allows me to listen to the CDs that I would normally have wanted to buy. It also helps you weed out CDs you DON'T want to buy, which is another good way to save money! Unlike iTunes, the songs aren't loaded onto your computer, so it doesn't take up a lot of memory.

So far I'm really impressed with the variety of music they have. They even have a sizeable amount of Christian music, which I was surprised by. The only artist I haven't been able to find so far is Pink, which I thought was random, but I'm sure there's a reason for it. Here are some of the songs I'm currently playing on repeat:

"Not Over You" Gavin Degraw
"Innocent" Taylor Swift
"Cosmic Love" Florence and the Machine
"Til the World Ends" Britney Spears
"Monster" Paramore
"Skyscraper" Demi Lovato
"Moves Like Jagger" Maroon 5/Christina Aguilera
"Loud Music" Michelle Branch
"Something to Believe In" Parachute
"What You Want" Evanescence
"I am Woman" Jordin Sparks
"Pumped Up Kicks" Foster the People
"Cooler Than Me" Mike Posner
"OMG" Usher
"Mr. Know It All" Kelly Clarkson

How about you? Have you discovered Spotify yet? What are you listening to?