These are a few of my favorite things . . .

I decided to make a list of some of my favorite things. I don't know why. I guess because I am bored. Now, some of my favorite things are actually people, but I will do a people list later, maybe.


The first thing on the favorites list is Books. I love, love, love books. And a few of my favorites are:

1. The Harry Potter series (very favorite being Goblet of Fire) by J.K. Rowling

These books taught me a lot as a reader and a writer. I participated in discussion boards on this book, read them all in sequence with a notebook so I could take notes on Snape when I was trying to prove my (correct) theory that he was indeed on the good side. I've never seen a fiction book bring more people together.

2. A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Wind in the Door, and Many Waters by Madeline L'Engle

I read A Wrinkle in Time when I was in junior high and immediately fell in love with it. Even though L'Engle wrote it in part as a commentary on her dislike for organized religion, it reminded me of the Plan of Salvation when I read it. Satan's plan was like what was happening at Camazots, where Christ's plan, even though it leads to war and suffering because it gives people the opportunity to make their own mistakes, is ultimately much better than being forced to do something that leads to false harmony.

3. Mistborn: The Final Empire, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension, and Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson

These are relatively new discoveries for me. I met Brandon Sanderson at a writing conference in Provo and thought his books looked interesting. I bought Elantris and loaned it to Nathan for his trip to Ohio when he was interviewing at Case Dental School. When he got back he was absolutely engrossed in it and insisted that I read it when he was done. Then, to make sure that I read it, he had me read it out loud to him! Then he asked for theMistborn books for his birthday and we read those together as well.

4. Anything written by Erma Bombeck is automatically awesome and worth reading, however the book that addicted me to her humor is Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own! I read it when I was still in elementary school, and despite my youth, was able to see the hilarity of it all, even with it being as dated as it was at the time.

5. The Book of Mormon.

That seems like a no brainer, so I'm surprised that it took this long for me to think to put it on the list. But I love The Book of Mormon. It has helped me through some really difficult times, being able to sit and read the words of God, his prophets, and his son, Jesus Christ. There was a time when I wasn't reading it as often as I should have and every time I picked it up, it was as if God knew exactly where I was in my reading and knew exactly what I needed to hear from him. I don't know, maybe if I'd kept up my reading, I would have remembered it before sitting down to read and things wouldn't have seemed so bad. Anyway, I receive a tremendous amount of comfort from The Book of Mormon and I know that it is the word of God.

6. Where are the Children and Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark

I can't remember when I started reading her books, maybe junior high or high school, but these two are my favorites. My husband thinks she's too predictable, but he has an engineering mind that is programmed to figure out problems. I, the English minor, like to be surprised and actually read mysteries for fun, not to figure the mystery out before everyone else.

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I tried to read this in high school and hated it. I couldn't understand what she was talking about and ended by giving up. When I got it as an assignment in college I was less than thrilled, but the girls in my group were positively in love with the book. I decided that I had to give it another chance. This time I not only understood it, but loved it. I got the jokes, the father's dry humor, the idiocy of the mother, everything!

8. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.

I took a Young Adult Literature class and this was the only book I was given by the teacher that I felt had any merit at all. It was also the only one I would have actually classified in the YA category. Most of what he gave us was reading material for a second grader (pre-Harry Potter, second grader). I enjoyed the odd, quirky humor of the book and the "game" I got to play as the reader.

9. The Vanishing Hitchhiker by Jan Harold Brunvand; Speak Bird, Speak Again by Ibrahim Muhawi;and I Heard the Old Fisherman Say by Mullen Patrick.

These are books I read in my folklore class a few years ago. I discovered a love for a subject I didn't even know existed that semester. Folklore and urban legends are now a passion of mine. I did a project the following summer where I went to Texas and collected urban legends in the Hispanic community around Houston.

10. I love to read plays as well. Probably because I was a drama geek in junior high and high school. I've read a lot of Shakespeare, Fahrenheit 451, The Importance of Being Earnest, Medusa, Oedipus, Antigone, A Man for all Seasons, and many, many more.