Song: “The Underfall Yard” by Big Big Train.  

Big Big Train is the single best band you’ve never heard of. They’re huge in the U.K. and Europe, but they have only a small following in North America. I first bought the album, “The Underfall Yard,” back in 2009 (the dark ages!), and the 22-minute title track has been my all-time favorite song ever since. The song, no matter how many times I listen to it, never fails to grab me at the deepest levels of the soul.

 

Book: “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is an easy one for me. It’s Tolkien’s “The Lord of The Rings,” and I’ve been reading it at least every other year since my late grade school days. What’s to say that’s not already been said? Tolkien is deeply western, deeply Catholic, and deeply romantic and mythological. “The Lord of the Rings” ranks up there with “The Odyssey,” “The Aeneid,” and “The Divine Comedy.” Someday, folks will study Tolkien the way we study Homer, Virgil, and Dante.

 

Movie: The Dark Knight Trilogy

This is a bit trickier, as I would want to qualify what type of movie. I’m a huge fan, for example, of John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, and I love Steve Martin comedies such as “Bowfinger.” I also love horror movies such as “The Thing” and “Alien.” My favorite modern director, though, is Christopher Nolan. I love everything he’s done, but nothing has moved me as much as his Dark Knight Trilogy. He makes Batman utterly real. And, I really, really want to believe in Batman!