Reading fan fiction is a little like going thrift-store shopping. I've gone to second-hand stores all my life, my mom taking my siblings and me when we were young, filling a brown paper grocery bag for a dollar, stuffing it with practiced diligence. Visiting yard sales provides the same sort of experience: you go again and again, never knowing what you'll find, waiting patiently, looking through detritus or the mundane for an unexpected treasure that fills you with delight and satisfaction.

And that's why I finally made an account here. After I began watching Supernatural on Netflix (encouraged by my daughter in 2014), I binge-watched the show, then started watching in real-time, then started reading fan-fiction, keeping a list of authors and stories I liked on a memo in my phone until I finally decided that it would be more practical to record my favorites here, to keep track of those stories that shine above the rest, that capture my imagination and resonate with the power of words. Sometimes there's a dry spell for weeks, maybe even months, and then I find a work of fiction that leaves me breathless, that makes me want to read quickly for the satisfaction of a good resolution (or a heart-ripping-out one, as often happens in this fandom) but also to read slowly because I want to savor the pleasure.

So, Supernatural was what drew me here, but what else do I like?

Books: The Chronicles of Narnia (and other C. S. Lewis books), Jane Eyre, The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers,
Movies: The Princess Bride, The Last of the Mohicans, The Scarlet Pimpernel (with Anthony Andrews), Cyrano de Bergerac (with Gerard Depardieu)
TV Shows: Supernatural, Firefly, Lost (few few seasons!), What Not to Wear, Sherlock
Music: Evanescence, Josh Garrels, Dirt Poor Robins, Tenth Avenue North, Hurts, Red
Hobbies: reading, acting, playing piano, geocaching, thrift-store shopping, traveling (or dreaming about traveling anyway)

My house is filled with books, nowhere near as esoteric (or useful) as Bobby's. I especially love my collection of alternate fairy tales and my ABC books. I dream of having a giant library with a curving staircase!

"Let It Be Forgotten" by Sara Teasdale

Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold,
Let it be forgotten for ever and ever,
Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

If anyone asks, say it was forgotten
Long and long ago,
As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall
In a long forgotten snow.