These are a few of my favorite things . . .

Authors/Books:

Francis Hodgson Burnett/A Little Princess, The Secret Garden
Gail Carson Levine/Ella Enchanted, The Two Princesses of Bamarre
Charles Dickens/um, all of them ^_^
Fyodor Dostoevsky/Crime and Punishment
Leo Tolstoy/Anna Karenina
Victor Hugo/The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Terry Pratchett/the hilarious Discworld series
JK Rowling/Harry Potter, of course
Gregory Maguire/Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
CS Lewis/The Chronicles of Narnia series, The Screwtape Letters
JRR Tolkein/The Lord of the Rings
this list is getting too long, and I have the feeling it will never end, so . . . on to the next subject!

Movies:

Almost anything with Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole . . . ok, this list might not end, either. Main point: old movies are the best. Classics like The Philadelphia Story, How to Steal a Million, and all the Alfred Hitchcock movies. I also love musicals (especially Kismet and Fiddler on the Roof).

Topics of Interest:

These are things I might study on my own just because I'm interested.

Fairytales--history and adaptations
Fantasy--defining the genre
Genetic Engineering (Botanical)
Poetic Styles
Shakespeare
Egyptology
Middle Eastern Conflicts and Current Events
Ecology/Environmentalist ideas
Music

Embarrassing Enjoyments (Hey, get your mind out of the gutter!):

Neopets.com (I must confess, I'm something of a Neoaddict *sigh*)
Harry Potter fandom (the books, not the movies. I've read them more times than you might guess)
Reading Children's Books (you're never too old for Dr. Suess, Abel's Island, Rudyard Kipling, Roald Dahl . . . need I go on?)

Music:

The Beatles! (John, Paul, George and Ringo were and are the best!) Actually, most classic rock rules. I also enjoy new age; classical (you know--Mozart, Bach, Beethoven); movie soundtracks like Peter Pan (the new one), The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and other movies that just have great music. Actually, the only music I don't like is rap, heavy metal, and any other noise that is simply loud and degrading. I even enjoy Arnold Schoenberg's atonal music.

Food:

breadsticks, decent pizza, spinach salad, potatoe soup (I like most soup), ice cream, chocolate anything (especially Lindor truffles and caramel Cadbury Eggs), crisp apples, pasta (just not alfredo), grilled cheese sandwiches dipped in tomatoe soup, german chocolate cake, white cake with nothing on it . . . ok, now I'm just making myself hungry.

Things to do When I'm Bored:

Write (poetry, in journal, nonsense, my novel . . .)
Read
Nap
Walk around outside (if the weather's nice--sometimes, a light drizzle or snow counts as nice)
Catch up on all my online activities (you know--email, Elfwood, Writing.com, blogs, *cough* Neopets *cough*)

That's all for now, folks!