You kind-of have to start with spaghetti. Spaghetti is cool because you can twirl it up on a fork, slurp the noodles up and let them slap against your cheeks, and poke people with the noodles before they're cooked.

I have a box of Barilla spaghetti noodles right here. I usually buy Barilla noodles, not necessarily because I think they make the best noodles, but because I like their spaghetti sauce and I figure their noodles must be specially engineered to match the sauce or something. They cost the same as the other noodles, so it's no big deal. Anyhow, they take 8-9 minutes to cook, come in a 1lb blue box, and are about 10 inches long. Check this out: I'm going to type something with a spaghetti noodle

i'm typing this with a noodle!!!!

I needed two noodles to get the exclamation points.

What's in spaghetti? A 2oz serving has 200 Calories and one gram of fat. It also has a bunch of vitamins and minerals, mainly because it's made of enriched flour apparently. The main problem I have with spaghetti is that 1. it's not very interesting and 2. I like to make my spaghetti and sauce all in one pot (because I'm lazy) and the skinny noodles tend to get mushed up and broken when you keep cooking and stirring them.

Rotini is also a popular noodle. They're the spiral noodles, about 0.5 to 1.0 inches long. They're nice to eat and perfect for grabbing with a fork. They're also pretty sturdy when you cook them with sauce.

I have a box of Barilla rotini right here. I really like Barilla's rotini. It has a tight springy twist. Check this out: I'm going to put some rotini's in my ears

I'm typing this with rotinis in my ears. What was that? Could you speak up?!

Anyhow, rotinis come in a 1 lb blue box (totally different shape from the spaghetti). They have 200 Calories per 2 oz serving, and pretty much the same nutrition content as spaghetti. I also found out recently that you can make a quick and tasty dish out of rotini, Italian dressing, and boiled broccoli.

Penne are the hollow pasta tubes, cut on a slant. "The Little Pasta Cookbook" published by Smithmark says that they are also known as "quills", and that the "rigate" refers to the ones with ridges. The tube noodles in general are cool because they are nice to chew, easy to stab with a fork, and baffling when you stop to think about how round noodles are made. They aren't really my favorite noodles, but they're ok. It would be better if they were about twice as long, I think.

I have a box of Barilla Penne Rigate right here. I'm just going to leave it in the box, thanks. It comes in exactly the same box as the rotini, and has pretty much the same nutrition information. The pasta cookbook mentioned earlier has a tasty-looking vegetarian recipe involving penne and vegetables - mmmm.

Update:

An anonymous reader writes (in almost all lower case):
"i would have to disagree that penne noodles would be better if they were twice as long. They would just break, and then eventually you would just have to cut them anyways. spaggetti is fine because it is thin, but these other noodles are just too thick for that i think.

Farfale are the "bow-tie" noodles. Their name supposedly means "butterflies", so don't eat these before a big test, or you'll have butterflies in your stomach! These are nice noodles which are fun to eat. They're a bit of a challenge, though, because they like to jump out from under your fork unless you manage to stab them right in the middle. They're a little tricky to catch with a spoon too. I can usually get just one at a time. I am at school now and don't have any noodles handy - darn, eh? I do know that the Barilla noodles come in a 1lb blue box. I think the best way to eat then would be with oil or dressing or something (not with spaghetti sauce) but I rarely do that.