Best Entertainment Books of 2008

When it comes compiling our line-up of the Best Books of 2008, the Entertainment category tends to present a bit of a challenge. A variety of genres call this category home, including screenplays, celebrity biographies, crossword puzzles, humor collections, how-to-win at poker books, sheet music, and even D&D handbooks. In fact, our editors' top pick for 2008, David Hajdu's' The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, could be shelved comfortably in Comics & Graphic Novels, Humor, American History, Popular Culture, or Art History & Criticism.

Our Editors' Top 10 includes books about film (3), music (3), pop culture (1), and humor (2). One title (one of my personal favorites) that you might expect on our Biographies & Memoirs list is George, Being George, the absolutely marvelous oral history of "New York's last gentleman," the late, fireworks-loving George Plimpton. While he was a shining center of New York's literary scene, Plimpton also served as a real-life Walter Mitty inserting his amateur self into a number of professional sports (boxing, baseball, football), and acted in movies and television. And his memorable turn as the droll "Famous Author" spokesman in the Intellivision commercials of my youth alone should earn him a place here.

As you'll see below, humor dominates our Top 10 Customer Favorites, followed by two D&D roleplaying handbooks, an illustrated guide to one of the most anticipated films of 2008, and a pair of poker picks.

Amazon's 2008 Top 10 Editors' Picks in Entertainment

1. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu
2. Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films by David Thomson
3. More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman
4. 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die by Tom Moon
5. Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris
6. The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts by Tom Farley
7. John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman
8. George, Being George edited by Nelson W. Aldrich
9. Seen Behind the Scene by Mary Ellen Mark
10. All Known Metal Bands by Dan Nelson

Amazon's 2008 Top 10 Customer Favorites in Entertainment

1. When You Are Ingulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
2. Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
3. Dungeons & Dragons Core Rule Book Gift Set (4th Edition)
4. I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
5. Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (4th Edition)
6. Goodnight, Bush: A Parody by Gan Golan
7. Too Fat To Fish by Artie Lange
8. Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion
9. Cash Games: How to Win at No-Limit Hold'em Money Games: Volume 1 by Dan Harrington
10. Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen

--BTP