I study comparative literature with English literature as my minor, therefore I am very interested in all kinds of texts.

In my opinion, fanfiction is a genre just like any other, so you get the good stuff, and the bad stuff, and the one in between. I love reading fanfiction since some stories are really inspiring, and I often wish that people could get things like these published. On the other hand, some stories are not only badly written, but also full of grammar and spelling mistakes, which is really annoying. Still, I poke my nose into them here and there because I want to see how bad it can get. It also helps improve my own writing style, for it shows me how to NOT do it. Sometimes I come across the ones that have a genuine plot idea, but the formatting of the document is horrible (e.g. the author does not know how to use the return key) or there are lots of grammar and spelling errors, which makes it tiresome to read. Those always make me feel very sad, for I know they would get more attention if the author had heeded technical features, and it's quite easy to find a beta-reader who could see to these things.

My favourite authors are Jane Austen, J. K. Rowling and Terry Pratchett. All three have a very unique, very refreshing style and don't seem to be taking everything too seriously.

favourite novels: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (closely followed by HP & the PoA) by J. K. Rowling, Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Der Weiße Wolf by Käthe Recheis, Krabat by Ottfried Preußler, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Monk by Matthew Lewis, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, Metamorphoses by Ovid, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire, Googol by Hans-Dieter Klein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Being There by Jerzy Kosinski, Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch by Michael Ende

favourite plays: "Nathan der Weise" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, "An Inspector Calls" by J. B. Priestley, "Einen Jux will er sich machen" by Johann Nestroy, "Much Ado about Nothing" by William Shakespeare, "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw, "Kabale und Liebe" by Friedrich Schiller, "Der zerbrochene Krug" by Heinrich von Kleist, "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams

favourite fairy tales: "Cinderella" by Brothers Grimm, "The Ordinary Princess" by M. M. Kaye, "The Little Mermaid" and "The emperor's new clothes"by Hans Christian Andersen

favourite novellas: Der Schimmelreiter by Theodor Storm, Kleider machen Leute and Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe by Gottfried Keller, Der Sandmann by E. T. A. Hoffmann

favourite movies: Star Wars I-VI, Dark Harbor, König Drosselbart (directed by Miloslav Luther, 1984), The Emperor's New Groove, Love Actually, Dear Frankie, 25th Hour, Fight Club, Something the Lord Made, Dogma, Gladiator, A beautiful mind, Little Voice, State of Grace, Where the Heart Is, Pirates of the Carribean, Double Jeopardy, Pride & Prejudice (BBC TV mini series), The Faculty, Oldboy, Timeline, Der Schuh des Manitu, Traumschiff Surprise - Periode I, Down with Love

favourite music: classic (especially Mozart, some Beethoven, Händel), musicals (favourite ones: "Tanz der Vampire" and "Grease"-film version, as of September 2006: "Wicked" which I saw in NYC), "Coultergeist" by Phil Coulter, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, "Poison" by Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, Schandmaul, Band ohne Namen, Irish Folk, Die Toten Hosen, Die Ärzte, some oldies, Nena, Billy Joel, Nightwish, Metallica, Aerosmith, Beatles, Nanne Grönvall

my list of top ten actors (No. 2 to 10 are not ranking numbers):
1. Alan Rickman (the Master!), 2. Edward Norton, 3. Russell Crowe, 4. Leonardo DiCaprio, 5. Gerard Butler, 6. Ewan McGregor, 7. Gary Oldman, 8. Orlando Bloom, 9.Sean Connery, 10.Rupert Grint

actresses: Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Catherine Zeta-Jones

Rezensieren und Tadeln sind im Wörterbuch manches jungen Gelehrten vollkommen synonym.
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

To review and to censure are altogether synonymous in many a young scholar's glossary.
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)