#immma get you all to read david eddings

[welllpthisishappening]

Belle & Snow White & Cinderella for the ask game. :D

You are a delight and absolutely lovely. Thank you so much for asking! Here we go:

belle: why is your favorite book your favorite? Ok, so, actually the story about my favorite book starts with a different book. When I was 11 years old, I saw Fellowship of the Ring for the first time in theaters and it, like, fundamentally changed me as a person. I immediately came home, told my dad I wanted to read everything J.R.R. Tolkien had ever written and then proceeded to do, almost, just that. I still haven't read The Hobbit, so—I digress. After reading almost all of Tolkien's published works, I was looking for anything else fantasy-related to read, and so I did what any self-respecting (then) 12-year-old kid would do and I snuck into my parents room and grabbed another book. It was Guardians of the West by David Eddings, the first book in The Malloreon series. I started reading it. And reading it. And reading it. And then I kept reading the rest of the series. At some point my dad realized I'd copped one of his books (also: it should be noted that these were, like, the original 80s pubs of these books, so they've got some really excellent drawn-covers with ridiculous buff dudes and giant swords. that's not a euphemism.) and he was like—you know this is the sequel series, right?? Spoiler, I did not. But I was already in the middle of the series and I was loving it. High fantasy like Tolkien with all different races and what basically amounted to a cross-kingdom road trip full of snarky characters and magic and the aforementioned giant swords, BUT, unlike Tolkien, and with the exception of Eowyn, there WERE GIRLS HERE. AND THEY DID STUFF. LOTS OF STUFF. POLGARA THE SORCERESS WAS THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN IN THE GODDAMN WORLD. Also, I wanted to be Ce'Nedra, except that was only partially because she was married to Garion and I kind of loved Garion and partially because she had red hair, but that's not the point. Whereas Tolkien could sometimes get a little dry, especially for a middle school'er, Eddings writing was engaging. Seriously, the banter. I cannot overstate the banter. So, I finished that series and then my dad gave me the books in The Belgariad and things made a hell of a lot more sense once I read them in semi-order and then I just kept re-reading both series every two years or so. To the point where the bindings of some of the books were so tattered that whole chunks of the book would just, like, come out and you had to read those on their own. I could not tell you how many times I read these books at this point. It's got everything. Unlikely heroes! Friendship! Romance! Banter! Sweet action sequences! Powerful women! King Belgarion of Riva High Lord of the West and love of my life! And, like, if you ever read these books, you'll see the ridiculous influence they had on the way I write. Legit, @optomisticgirl found out and was like Oh, it all makes sense now. It really does.

snow white: name the oldest film or book you like. Oh, this is tough, actually. Mostly because one of Justin's favorite pastimes is scrolling through Netflix's Classic Movie section to see which ones I haven't seen. I would say my favorite "old" movie is Meet Me In St. Louis. Again, Judy Garland had red hair. So.

cinderella: what’s the most unusual item of clothing or accessory you own?

I have had the same red, polka dot zip-up hoodie with inexplicable rainbow patches on the front since I was approximately fourteen years old and it remains my favorite article of clothing to do this day. My mom bought it for me from the kids section in Filenes when she worked at Filenes. Like before Filenes became Macy's. Is Filenes an exceptional northeast reference? I feel like it is.

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