With some fudging on how many items can be in a “top five”, here are my top six “top five” lists (in no particular order):

1. Top Five History Books
(Listed in the order in which I read them)

1. Rats, Lice & History: The book that really made historical thinking click for me in my first history class freshman year.
2. A Midwife’s Tale: The book professors have assigned to me in three different courses, a great microhistory.
3. Nature’s Metropolis: The book that has stuck with me for years–I just really like Cronon’s approach.
4. Nation among Nations: The book I want to use in my teaching to help kill the myth of American Exceptionalism.
4.5. The Silent Majority: The book that really made structuralism stand out, great analysis of structural racism.
5. Something New Under the Sun: The book that made me want to incorporate a macro-level analysis to my research.

2. Top Five Non-Academic Books
(Listed in no particular order)

1. 1984: The book with some great quotes about history.
2. Brave New World: The book that pairs well with 1984.
3. Amusing Ourselves to death: The book that is the real life equivalent of the above fictional dystopias.
4. The Catcher in the Rye: The book every teenager should read.
5. Slaughterhouse-Five: The book (like the rest on this list) everyone should read.

3. Top Five Blogs I Read
(Listed by how often I read them, starting with the most frequently)

1. ProfHacker: The blog I read most often, great for thinking about academic topics
2. Jason Heppler: The blog (and person) that helped convince me to start my blog.
3. Dan Cohen: The blog every digital historian (and humanist should read).
4. Matthew Kirschenbaum: The blog of another great digital humanist.
5. The History Roll: The blog I use to find other good blog posts.

4. Top Five Digital History Projects
(Listed in the order in which they influence my work)

1. Gilded Age Plains City: The project that lured me to UNL and into the digital humanities.
2. Spatial History Project: The project I look to for visualization inspiration.
3. Voting America: The project I reviewed and I have always liked.
4.Valley of the Shadow: The project that cannot be left off any list of digital history projects.
5. The Welikia Project: The project that is just really cool.

5. Top Five Non-Academic Websites
(Listed in no particular order)

1. Gmail: The website I have been using for email since high school.
2. Twitter: The website I use for news (academic and otherwise) and my attempts at social networking.
3. Facebook: The website I use for everything inappropriate for twitter.
4. ESPN.com: The website I read too much.
5. briansarnacki.com: The website I make (self-promotion at its best).

6. Top Five Things I’m Listening to Right Now
(Listed in no particular order)

1. This American Life: The podcast that I listen to whenever I can, interesting and entertaining stories.
2. Radiolab: The podcast that regularly blows my mind, addresses more science-y type topics in a very accessible way.
3. Stuff You Missed in History: The podcast that I would consider assigning in an undergraduate survey course.
4. British Music: The bands–Mumford & Sons, Florence and the Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Kate Nash, Lily Allen, V.V. Brown, Stornoway (some help from Pandora on finding them all).
5. Ivan & Alyosha: The band I saw in concert a few weeks ago that I can’t stop listening to and if they ever get really famous I’ll be able to say I liked them before they were cool.