In your pleasant Thursday media column: Mark Halperin's Obama's-a-pussy flashback, Ashton Kutcher vs. the Village Voice, Greta Van Susteren calls for more outrage, an angry subject sues David Grann, and Brits are coming for you news.

While most of our lives are devoted to the watching and hearing of things, occasionally, yes, we do read a thing or two. Here are our choices for our favorite reads of the year, books or otherwise.

The video of Neda Agha-Soltan's death, during protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in Iran, is the first anonymously shot piece to win the prestigious George W. Polk award. David Grann's New Yorker piece on the death penalty and David Rohde's five-part New York Times series on being held by the Taliban were also honored.