Day 12 – A book or series of books you’ve read more than five times

Lord of the Rings – once a year for a few years, less often more recently.

I know, I know… lots of you will be rolling your eyes… but I. Don’t. Care.

Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Pride and Prejudice.

Some well-meaning adult gave me a copy of P&P when I was all of ten, and I Just Could Not get past the first few pages. So I gave up and got a bit cranky when people talked about Austen.

Cue the TV series, and now… well. We loves it, precious.

Day 09 – Best scene ever

OH THE CHOICES. Darcy and Elizabeth finally admitting their love? The darling cosy love scene at the end of Mahy’s The Changeover? The amazing ending to Alastair Reynold’s House of Suns? Tiffany Aching staring everybody down? The first time Owen and Hazel meet in Deathstalker, or the arrival of Hawk and Fisher at the castle?

This is a really hard question, and is partly why I didn’t post this on the right day. Oops. But I’ve been re-reading the entire Belgariad, and there’s a moment where the reader is introduced to Vella, the remarkable Nadrak woman who gets much more air time in the Mallorean. And it suddenly occurred to me that one of, at least, my favourite scenes ever is right at the end of Seeress of Kell, where the ugly little Beldin, who has the soul of an artist, and Vella – gorgeous and rough and in need of love – fly away as hawks, having found what they always wanted. And you know what? I think that’s just about one of the loveliest scenes I’ve ever read. So it gets my vote.