Fill in the Blank Friday

This week's theme for Fill in the Blanks Friday is books! Hurrah! A good book makes me happier than almost anything. You? Play along at The Little Things We Do and answer these questions, too.

1. My favourite book growing up was probably A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I read it a dozen times. I loved Sara's story of riches to rags (and back to riches again), all set in Victorian London. I liked The Secret Garden too, but not quite as much. * This was a really difficult question for me to answer. Books were such a huge part of my life from a really young age. I devoured them, and was always the class bookworm. I spent all my free time with my nose in a good book. I loved the Little House books, and books by Roald Dahl, Beverly Cleary, Maud Hart Lovelace and L.M. Montgomery. (I am a proud Canadian and love Anne of Green Gables with all my heart! Some time I should show you all my photos of my trip to PEI...) I adored E.B. White and C.S. Lewis. My favourite place to be when I was a kid? The library. Because at the library, I could travel to any place in the world (I especially loved the moors of England, the cobbled streets of London and the big hill in Deep Valley, Minnesota) and spend time with the most amazing people...

2. The funniest book I've ever read was Miss Smithers. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. Alan came running, thinking I was having some sort of a mental breakdown! I was practically convulsing, and the tears were rolling down my cheeks as I gasped for air! (I also find Bridget Jones' Diary and And God Created the Au Pair hugely hilarious)

3. The one book that truly changed my life was Little House in the Big Woods. It got me reading novels, made me think about the past, and opened up entirely new worlds to me. When I was in my late teens, I read A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet, Beverly Cleary's two memoirs, and they had a profound effect on me as well. She was a children's author and a librarian and quite a strong woman. I admired all those things about her, and in some ways, tried to emulate them.

4. If you're looking for a real tear-jerker you should read The Friday Night Knitting Club. BRUTAL.

5. If I could meet any author living or dead, I think I'd choose Jane Austen. Because seriously, how fabulous would it be to have tea and cakes with Jane Austen, out on the lawn? Ooh, and maybe we could invite Oscar Wilde along, too!

6. The next book on my "to read list" is either The Cradle Snatcher by Tess Stimson (it was a birthday present from my sister-in-law in Ireland and looks like a fun, light-hearted, girly kind of read) or the depression-era Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (far more serious, a "darkly compelling fairy story")... When I finish Eat, Pray, Love, we'll see what I'm in the mood for. As summer gets closer, I find myself wanting to re-read The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants books, too!

7. If I was snowed into a remote cabin in the woods and could only choose three books to bring with me, I'd choose Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (because I luuuuuurve Harry Potter books and can never, ever get enough of them), And God Created the Au Pair (because it's such a funny book about family life and I just love the emails between the sisters, sharing their stories) and Anne of Green Gables (because she is one of the most marvellous heroines ever, and most certainly the greatest in Canadian literature)... But you know I'd try to sneak in a few more, right? Just try to stop me! Three books to keep me occupied during a blizzard is simply not enough.

So there you have it. Books. Near and dear to my heart. I could go on and on for hours! But I'm not. I'm going to take my boys to the beach instead. While I'm gone, won't you play along and let me know your favourites?

Happy Weekend, friends! Anything fun planned for your Friday night?