How old were you when you discovered the W/H pairing? Oh, and as for your Grammar!Nazi persona (who would be a perfect beta-reader!), I have a bonus question, if I may…? :) What’s your favorite book(s)?

It wasn’t long ago that I started devouring reading the Holmes books, so, I’d say I was fifteen/sixteen.

You’re going to make me pick? ;) Ah, I love this question. Ok, list-form, shall we? ;)

• Anything by Oscar Wilde: the man’s words are all golden; “De Profundis”—which we can pretty much consider historical fiction—had me in sobs; Dorian Gray was hauntingly beautiful; I read “The Canterville Ghost” to my little brother before bed and petrified him because I forgot it didn’t get comical until the second part. Heh. I’m a good sister, shush. ;)

• As aforementioned, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: I love the characters and their individual plot lines, and Tolstoy’s elegant writing. 

• Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand: please, go read this book, because I feel you’d definitely love it, considering your love of Downton Abbey. It’s a modern novel, Simonson’s first, and the quite original, light, interesting plot line is ‘good-not-great,’ but the characters are impeccable, as the Major maintains a Victorian-style comportment. 

• Can I count plays? Because Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, set in the ’40s, was excellent, but opinions on it are widely varied—it all depends on how much sympathy Miller allows you, individually, to develop for the aged (I think I decided he was in his 60s) main character, Willy, as he contemplates suicide to support his family financially (without giving too much away…). 

• I deeply intend to read more of his books, because Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge and Tess of the D’Urbervilles were just my style, if I ever get tired of the frilly always-a-happy-ending stuff. 

• Honourable Mentions (read: Guilty Pleasures) that I’d re-read repeatedly in a heart-beat: Jennifer Donnelly’s Revolution (ok, so it’s a teen novel—the melodramatic/angsty main character and French Revolution-based plot make it quite good!), Sophie Kinsella’s Can You Keep A Secret? (I’m entitled to a light romance story once in a while, right? Please? ;) Also, I can’t help but imagine Alec Baldwin as love-interest Jack), Rawi Hage’s Parfum de poussière (his French translation makes it so much more beautiful), and Steven Galloway’s The Cellist of Sarajevo (again with the melancholic tone, set in/around Bosnian War. Also, Canadian authors for the win).

This is way more than you probably bargained for, eh? I am sorry—even more sorry if you actually read through my ramblings. ;)

I’d really love to know yours, as well (!)—care to share?

Edit: Can I add that Hamlet is probably my favourite character ever?