Day 15: your favourite male character:

Black was sprawled at the bottom of the wall. His thin chest rose and fell rapidly as he watched Harry walking slowly nearer, his wand pointing straight at Black's heart.
"Going to kill me, Harry?" he whispered.Harry stopped right above him, his wand still pointing at Black's chest, looking down at him. A livid bruise was rising around Black's left eye and his nose was bleeding."You killed my parents," said Harry, his voice shaking slightly but his wand quite steady.
Black stared up at him out of those sunken eyes.
"I don’t deny it," he said very quietly. "But if you knew the whole story..”

I swear, I fell in love with Sirius from his very first page and I have loved him ever since. Warner Bros did such a good job of casting him in the movies because he looks just like Gary Oldman in my head.
I love how JK Rowling managed to develop Sirius's character in so few words - if you think about it, comparatively, he doesn't get much page time but still he makes such an impact and his story; Remus's story; the whole back story surrounding Remus and Sirius and The Marauders drew me in as much (if not more) as Harry, Ron and Hermione did. When a book had finished I could pretty much leave Harry and co where they'd left off, until next time. I could never do that with Sirius. I was always wondering what went on behind the scenes, after PoA, betweeen GoF and OotP? What was it like when he was at Hogwarts, or after he'd left? How was it really, in the first war? The little bit of story that JKR let me have of Sirius left me hungry for more. I loved Sirius and his story from the very beginning and I love it just as much now. I love him because he's gorgeous and clever and wise and funny and a little bit rebellious and never afraid to take a risk; in fact, Sirius lives for the risk – the first person to escape Azkaban, people, but let’s be honest here: he’s also arrogant (I’ve always found arrogant men attractive) and a little prone to making rash and careless decisions. It’s a very good job he had Remus around to prevent him from going completely off the rails. Sending him to Lupin’s was one of the best decisions Dumbledore made, but that’s a story for another day....
He’s fiercely loyal – to a fault, actually – and maybe naively he expects the same level of loyalty from everybody else:

"You don't understand!" whined Pettigrew, "He would have killed me, Sirius!"
"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!”

And he’s brave. Stupidly brave. So brave that it cost him his life:

Only one couple were still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: He was laughing at her. "Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room. The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest. The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.
[....]
It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall. His body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backward through the ragged veil hanging from the arch.... And Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though a high wind and then fell back into place.

He's pretty much everything he should be: he's just what the Harry Potter series needed, just what Harry needed, just what I needed.

day 04: your favourite book for your favourite series

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is in my humble opinion the best book of the series, and not only because it introduces us to Sirius Black, possibly my biggest literary crush (and of course to Remus, who I’d like to keep in my pocket) but because it’s full of emotion and humour and suspense. Love love love.

I’d read the first two books of the series around the time of the release of Prisoner of Azkaban, and whilst I devoured both of those it was this book that really stole my heart. I fell in love, and I fell hard: with Harry (who I fell out of love with in the following books!), with know-it-all Hermione, with not-quite-as-dazzling-as-his-siblings Ron, with chocolate sharing-dark secret Lupin and most of all, oh, most of all with Sirius Black. I loved the Maurauder’s back story – how I loved it – and the start of the back story surrounding Snape, I loved the way it made me question things I’d never even considered in books 1 and 2 – darling old man Albus Dumbledore is not – and how it’s a little bit darker than it’s predecessors and now, over a decade later, it still remains my favourite of the series.

Why do I love it? Because of Ron’s attempt to use a telephone; because of Remus on the Hogwarts Express; because of the Boggart in the wardrobe; because of the Marauders Map, hell, because of the Marauders generally; because of Sirius; because of THAT scene in the Shrieking Shack. Sirius Sirius Remus Sirius. Prisoner of Azkaban has well rounded, well developed characters, a storyline that doesn’t lose it’s focus, no Voldemort (a fact you appreciate more after reading the later books) and a climax that STILL makes me forget to breathe. It definitely marks the start of my intense love for the series.

Day 03 - your favourite series

it has to be the Harry Potter series. These books are a part of me, I don’t even know how to express what they mean to me. I think I possibly love them a little too much. The characters are my friends; my family and I know the books almost by heart. Iwas 14 when the first book was released, although I didn’t actually start reading this POA was released when I was 16. I remember reading books 1 and 2 in a weekend and then bugging my brother to read book 3 faster so I could get my hands on it. I read that one in an evening and then went right back to book one and started again. I’ve read the whole series countless times since then – in the summer of 2005 I read Half Blood Prince 5 times. The Harry Potter books make me laugh, they make me cry, they are my comfort reads and now I know it’s all over I feel a little bit lost.

in which i finally share my love for the graveyard book

"You’re alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you’re dead, it’s gone. Over. You’ve made what you’ve made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.”

I love Neil Gaiman a little bit. Granted, I've only read three of his novels: Coraline, Stardust and The Graveyard Book and some people might feel this isn't evidence enough to be using the 'L' word but I don't care. I don't. I love him. Coraline, a modern day Alice: amazing if slightly (really) creepy. Stardust: so much better than the film, so pretty and magical and incredible. The Graveyard Book: in the running as my book of the year. Ok, so I'm not the Booker Prize, I'm just some girl who likes to read but still, I loved this book. I loved it more than pretty much everything else I've read this year.

Why?

It's pure brilliance, that's why. How many books have you read that manage to be both sinister yet poignant? Think of The Jungle Book, Kipling's version, not the Disney sing-a-long ( although I admit to maybe loving the Disney version more than the Kipling, so sue me!) and make it darker. Turn the jungle into a graveyard, the animals into ghosts and you've got The Graveyard Book. It's witty and it's clever and it's so beautifully written that it's impossible not to fall in love with this dark tale that manages to be full of warmth.
Sentences like "Nothing was said. Just a silence in reply, that echoed of dust and loneliness" just make me happy! In fact I am going to buy the audiobook, I want somebody to read this book aloud to me, and I want that somebody to be Gaiman!

Nobody Owens grows up in a graveyard after his parents, and sister, are killed by 'the man Jack,' a nasty man who is still after our Bod's blood. Adopted by the long-deceased Mr and Mrs. Owens, Bod is given the run of the graveyard, growing up amongst ghosts and ghouls and protected by the intriguingly mysterious Silas: the only one who can leave the graveyard, a man neither living or dead.
The book feels more like a short story collection than a novel, and this makes me love it that little bit more. Each chapter, whilst linking to the one before is 'complete' and Gaiman has a way with words that I've not seen equalled for a long time. I loved the language, the description, the little touches of humour, such as the way he told us what was written on the headstone of each 'person' we met: "Thomas R. Stout (1817-1851. Deeply regretted by all who knew him.") His character development is a work of art. Oh, see how I gush! Gaiman effortlesstly creates these characters that you are drawn to, that you care about, that you want to explore further but he never gives to much away. Is Silas a vampire? Is Miss Lupescu a werewolf? Dear reader, make up your own mind.

Also, I've not had a new literary crush for a while - unless you count my little Book Thief crush of course. I do have a soft spot for Rudy. And Max. But, I love The Graveyrd's Silas just a little bit too much.If you don't read it for any other reason, read it for him, because he could be my new Sirius.
"There were people you could hug, and then there was Silas."