Culture Surfing - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's top five

Playwright and comic-book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa spends his days writing The Sensational Spider-man for Marvel Comics and his nights in rehearsals for his sci-fi-flavored stage thriller Dark Matters, which opens in New York in mid-November. Atlanta theaters have staged world premieres of his plays, including Say You Love Satan. His autobiographical comedy, Based on a Totally True Story, plays through Dec. 2 at Actor's Express.

1) The novels of Ian McEwan: "This British novelist started out writing gruesome stories and melodramatic novellas, but recently, graduated to more literate, sophisticated fare, to amazing effect. I'm catching up on Atonement, Amsterdam and about to start Saturday. Highbrow stuff, but paced like potboilers."

2) The films of Michael Haneke: "European director whose early movies were recently released on DVD. Cache is about a middle-class French family terrorized by an unknown stalker videotaping them, while Funny Games depicts a middle-class French family on vacation terrorized by a pair of charming, Leopold-Loeb-type killers. Chilling, thought-provoking stuff that's definitely not for the faint of heart."

3) Reality TV: "Addicted to 'The Amazing Race' (lots of hotties), 'Survivor: Cook Island' (lots of hotties), and 'Top Chef' on Bravo (lots of hotties). As a writer, I know I should hate unscripted television shows on principle, but this stuff is like crack! In my defense, I'm also obsessed with ..."

4) "Ugly Betty," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and — most especially — "Heroes": "Each of these new shows has different virtues: 'Betty' is unapologetically endearing and campy, 'Studio 60' has the most crackling dialogue on TV right now, and 'Heroes' is the best adaptation-that's-not-an-adaptation of a comic book ever. All three keep my TiVo busy ... and make me glassy-eyed from staying up late to not fall behind."

5) Paula Dean: "She possibly has more personality than anyone else alive at the moment, and makes me wish I lived in Savannah just so I could go to her restaurant. A warm soul, an infectious laugh, charming sons, and more butter in her recipes than Rachel Ray, the Barefoot Contessa, and Emeril combined ... what's not to love?"