I'm a huge fan of the Harry Potter, Twilight, Stephanie Plum, and Thursday Next series. I also love Jane Austen (especially Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility) and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Those are my favorite books (as far as ones I can think of, at the moment). As far as non-fiction, Bill Bryson is my favorite author in that genre.

I started reading Harry Potter when Prisoner of Azkaban was the newest JKR book available, but I didn't discover HP fan-fiction until shortly after Deathly Hallows was published. At the time, I was going through a minor mourning period because the realization had set in that we wouldn't be given any more books to read about these wonderful characters. Then (drumroll, please), I discovered fan-fiction and found that I could still read new adventures of the Trio and Ginny, even if JKR didn't write them herself. Thus developed a new way of spending most of my free time. ;-) I love humor, romance, and happy endings; action/adventure is fine if there is enough happy, supportive "friend" stuff going on. Also, fics about time spent at the Burrow rate high with me. Angst is very hard on me because I feel so much a part of what's going on in the story. I can only read angst if I have plenty of assurance from someone who knows that it will have a happy ending, one way or another. My favorite fics revolve around Harry, the Weasleys, and Hermione. AU is fine with me, but I prefer when it sticks to canon pairings.

I started reading the first Twilight book on May 26 of this year, so that tells you how new I am to this fandom. I'd heard about this series a couple years back from bookseller friends, but I didn't think that I had the stomach to read anything involving vampires. Then, on May 24, 2009, I watched the Twilight movie for the first time and decided that if I enjoyed the movie that much, then I'd probably adore the book series (and I did). New Moon was very hard for me to take (being afraid that Stephenie Meyer wouldn't give us the happy ending that I was desperate for), but I made it through the book. This fandom is where I spend most of my fan-fic time these days. As in HP, I am also pro-canon pairings here, too. I love humor and Cullen family moments. I also love it when authors show each character's unique personality and their place in the Cullen family unit. Jacob is my least favorite character, but Breaking Dawn redeemed him for me. (Before that, I kept wanting to smack him and tell him to just shut up and back off. Once he got his own "object of his affection" and stopped torturing Bella, I was able to like him a whole lot more.) Rosalie is my second-least-favorite, but I don't hate her when a compassionate fan-fic author explains her mean side in a logical way. When they are written well, Bella, Edward, Alice, Esme, Carlisle, and Emmett are my favorite characters. (I don't really have strong feelings for Jasper and the other secondary characters, personally, though I enjoy it when Angela's character has more to do and her friendship with Bella receives more air-time.) Again, AU is fine, when the fics stick to canon pairings. I haven't read a lot of All Human fics, but so far I don't mind them when they're written well and focus on my favorite characters (i.e., Bella and the Cullens).

I sometimes read fan-fiction involving Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and the Thursday Next series. (I especially enjoy Thursday Next/Harry Potter crossovers, when I've happened to run across some.) However, I'm most at home in the HP and Twilight universes.

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