If anyone should be interested in me, well, I'm rather boring. I like to read fanfiction, sometimes I also like to read books, I like watching movies and I have some tv series that I watch religiously. I'm studying at Simon Fraser University in Canada, which means that I should really be doing more reading and studying for school than I do, but fanfics and movies and series are just so interesting and often addicting. Anyway. I think that's about enough info about me.

I could list all my favourite books, movies, tv series, authors, and whatnot, but I think I'll just skip that. From my favourite stories list and C2 you'll know that the two fandoms I'm interested in the most at the moment are Stargate Atlantis (and a bit of Stargate SG1) and Harry Potter. I used to be really into LotR, and I think I have one or two fics from that fandom in my favourite stories list as well.

Apropos my Favourites and C2: I recommend that you check them out if you're looking for a good read or two. My C2 is really the extension to my favourite stories list, though the C2 is only for HP fics. As to the kinds of fics I like...well. To me it is very important that fics are well-written, and I get annoyed very quickly if I have the feeling that the author can't write English. To tell you the truth, I still can't understand why so many authors from English-speaking countries can't seem to form simple sentences in their own language. And please, people, get a Beta or two or three! They don't cost you anything and they can give you very useful tips and feedback. In my opinion the reduced amount of humiliation is well worth the delay in posting chapters/fics, and as a reader I'm always very relieved and thankful when I don't have to guess what the author could possibly be talking about.

The most annoying mistakes for me are if the author confuses words that sound (almost) the same but are spelled differently, like the well known ‘they’re / their / there’, ‘then / than’ or ‘meat / meet’ problems. Also, what’s with the ‘must have / must of’ thing? Isn’t it completely obvious that ‘must of’ is WRONG? I understand that mistakes like that can just slip through and that perhaps the computer doesn’t even tell you that something’s wrong there, but that’s where the Betas come in. I also hate it if words or parts of sentences are missing and what especially riles me up is if someone doesn’t get fandom-specific terms right. How many times have I seen it that people confuse Occlumency with Legilimency? It’s not that hard to keep them apart, and if you’re not sure, it’s only a matter of a couple of minutes to check what’s what. Just as annoying as confusing terms/words/names is spelling them wrong. It’s Legilimency, not lelimency, litimacy, or anything like that.

Since I’m already ranting, I’ll just get it all off my chest. So, other things I don’t like/hate/that annoy me are:

- if the author doesn’t punctuate properly. There’s this one fic out there, don’t know the name or the author, but it has a really interesting summary and is nice and long, but every time I’ve started reading it, I’ve stopped after the first two lines of text. That author doesn’t seem to know what a period (“.”) is and the sentence just goes on and on and on with commas where there should be periods. Also, why do people insist on putting question marks behind random sentences (that are not questions)?

- If authors go into overly detailed descriptions of what a person looks like (I see it mostly in HP fics and there it almost always is a description of Harry). The thing is if someone’s reading a fanfic, they know the fandom and what the characters look like.

- Exaggerations when it comes to physical characteristics. For example, Harry isn’t the tallest guy around but he is not as short as a first year when he’s already in fifth year. As a six year old he also did not look like a three year old. Sort of related to this point is if there’s a description of someone being “roughly 5”7’”. Either they are “5”7’” or they are roughly five and a half feet. Same goes for if someone is “about 57 years old”.

- Since I’m already talking about characters’ appearances, I also have an active dislike for fics where about the first thing Harry does is to get a make-over. He is a teenager, and he’s not necessarily the best-looking guy around, what with being a bit on the short side, skinny, near-sighted with heavy glasses, and having weird hair. If it’s well-integrated into the story I can get to like Harry getting different glasses or getting his eyes fixed and perhaps growing his hair out a bit, but very often I see it being taken too far. Why do people want to give Harry waist-length hair? First of all, he’s a guy, and second of all, long hair like that can be very annoying if you’re in a fight. And I really don’t think that Harry’s the kind of guy who would get piercings and/or tattoos without giving it a whole lot of thought.

- What also annoys me is if characters in fics start to sing or if they listen to songs and the songs are described in detail. I haven’t read many fics where that happens, but in my opinion it just doesn’t fit. Harry doesn’t sing or know much about music.

- Even though I don’t have a problem with slash and actually read quite a lot of slash fics, I think it’s a little weird if everyone suddenly turns out to be gay. In these sorts of fics, suddenly and without explanation, Sirius is Remus’ mate but has had an affair with James and/or Severus, Hermione is sleeping with Ginny, and Harry is lusted after by all his dorm mates except Neville and three quarters of the rest of the school population (girls and boys). That just isn’t right.

- Apropos Severus Snape. I think that the challenge/idea of having Harry discover that Snape is his father is interesting and original. At least it was, when it was first introduced to the Harry Potter fandom. But I don’t see Snape undergoing a sudden personality change and really being a nice guy underneath or suddenly washing his hair and actually being attractive. Snape is not a nice guy and he is not attractive (except if you like pasty and greasy). If he changes, he’ll do so very slowly and only after lots of convincing. Same really goes for Voldemort. He is also not a good-looking man/person/being and he doesn’t care either.

Something that is important to me beside that the fic is well-written is that they are long. The longer the better. Of course, they still have to be well written, but if it has less than 30,000 words I mostly don’t even start reading it (except if it’s a sequel to a fic I read or from an author who I know is good and updates frequently). So, with just a few exceptions, the fics in my favs and C2 are all long and well-written. The few that have many spelling mistakes in them make up for it in plot and overall complexity and thought out-ness (if that’s a word).

So, among stories that are long and well-written, which stories to I read among the many that are out there? For one, they have to be centered on Harry if it’s a HP fic, John if it’s a SGA fic, Daniel if it’s a SG1 fic, and Wolverine/Logan if it's anX-Men fic. Fics where Harry, John, Daniel, and/or Wolverine/Logan are only minor characters I don’t even start to read.

Next to discuss, I guess, are pairings. First, I like both Het and Slash, though I prefer Gen stories. In SGA I think the only Romance fics I’ve read so far are John/Rodney fics, but that’s just me reading good, well-written, interesting stories that just happen to have that pairing. Ah well. In HP…I’ve read (and included on my favs and C2) many different pairings. I think it’s easier to tell you which ones I don’t like. So…I don’t like HP/RW, HP/SB and it has to be a reeeeeally good one if it’s a HP/RL. Of course, I don’t have a problem with HG/RW, or RW/LL or others like that as long as Harry is the main character.

As to the genres I like…I’m a total sucker for Angst/Action/Adventure, and I strongly dislike parody fics. I generally don’t read humour fics, but I have come across several of those who were really, really good and had me in tears because I was laughing so hard. Concerning Romance fics…I read them, and sometimes I have days or even weeks at a time when I’m only looking for fics with a certain pairing. But generally, I don’t read fics just for the Romance. Let me put it this way, if it’s angst, action, adventure, horror, suspense, or whatever else I read it and if it has romance in it I read it, too, but if it’s a pure Romance fic I’m not very likely to read it.

Concerning the kinds of fics I read (and have in my faves and C2), I like AUs, I love Azkaban!Harry, Independent!Harry, Powerful!Harry Political!Harry, Slytherin!Harry, Dark!Harry, Betrayed!Harry, Vampire!Harry, Werewolf!Harry, Creature!Harry, Severitus/Sevitus fics, fics where Harry’s sister/brother is thought to be the BWL, dimension traveling, and time travling (though here Harry-goes-back-in-time-and-meets-his-parents fics have been overdone). Fics that I am suspicious of are Superpowerful!Harry (if he’s so powerful then he can solve everything with just a flick of his finger – he doesn’t need a wand, y’know? – and then there’s no suspense, and I don’t like boring fics) and fics that contain lots of Dumbledore-bashing or Ron-bashing or Ginny-bashing or Hermione-bashing etc. All these characters can be idiots at times, but if it’s set in the canon universe then Dumbledore is not super manipulative and only out for his own good and Ron, Ginny, and Hermione aren’t evil, overly stupid, or hate Harry. The only situation where I could accept bashing of these characters is in AUs where there’s a good reason why the character(s) in question suddenly act so differently or fics with dimension traveling which really comes down to the same thing.

In SGA I really like fics that show a bit more of the connection that John has to Atlantis, and I really like the same genres here as I do in HP. And I love whumping.

With X-Man I'm a total sucker for fics where Logan finds out more about his past, and they should be as angsty as possible for me. What I think has been totally overdone in that fandom is Logan/Marie. I try to avoid those - for one thing the paring wierds me out (she's a teenager and he's like a hundred years old or something); for another those fic always are so mushy. And, once again, I ove whumping.

Oh, and I like crossovers. Most of the ones I’ve read so far are between fandoms that I know, but I have tried out crossovers with fandoms that I don’t know, too, and if they were well-written and did a good job of introducing/explaining the fandom I didn’t know I came to really like them as well.

I decided to add some recommended stories from other sites. So, here they are:

- Inevitable by Mhalachai on Twisting the Hellmouth (Harry Potter/Anita Blake crossover)

- Back Magic by Moonlight by Beren on Restricted Section (Harry Potter/Anita Blake crossover)

To summarize what’s in my C2 (though it also applies to my favourite stories list): It does not hold any specific kind of Harry Potter fanfiction, but simply some of my favourites. The main criteria for fics to be added there are that they have Harry Potter as a main character, are well written, and as long as possible. I make it a rule for myself not to read any fics with less than 30,000 words, so around that will be the minimum length. Otherwise you will find fics of the following types and with the following ships: Azkaban!Harry, Independent!Harry, Powerful!Harry Political!Harry, Slytherin!Harry, Dark!Harry, Betrayed!Harry, Vampire!Harry, Werewolf!Harry, Creature!Harry, Harry/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, Harry/Draco, Harry/Severus, Harry/Voldemort, Angst, Action/Adventure, Romance, Horror, Suspense, AU fics, Timetravel fics, Dimensiontravel fics and Crossovers with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars, X-Men, and Stargate.