As long as I can remember when I’ve liked something I’ve read I’ve held onto it tight. When I was young is was book series, having to read all the stories always wanting more. Always wanting to escape into the lives of the very interesting character. I had phases where I was dedicated to Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew and the girls of the Babysitters Club.

It would go beyond that. I would pretend I was a character and act out different scenes or change scenes I didn’t like in my head.

When I got older we bought a computer and got internet, horrible, slow, dial-up internet. At the time I was around 13 and into Sailor Moon. I got on the internet and found AskJeeves, a search engine from before Google. To keep with my need to obsess over one topic I searched “Sailor Moon Stories” and was taken to a whole new world. I stumbled upon fanfiction. It was like falling through the looking glass, never to return. It was proof to me that I wasn’t as crazy as I thought or if I was there were other crazy people out there with me.

Fanfiction for those who don’t know is stories written by authors all over the world and published onto the internet for people to read. I would be up to all hours of the night and then have to turn on every light in the house to safely get back to my room (so the boogie man in my head couldn’t get me).

Lots of people read books for hours everyday. Me I spend that time on the internet reading stories from unpublished authors. You can find stories about everything. In the genre of Sailor Moon you could find stories about the past, the future. There were stories about if events went differently or if everyone was all human. You could stay awake reading these fanfictions for the rest of your life and never be finished.

Now instead of having to play pretend and act out a change in a book/movie/TV show that I like I can go in the internet and find some fanfiction for my current obsession and find someone who has written all about what I want to read. What your two favourite characters to hook up there a (million) stories about that.

I get attached to characters that I like and want to read more about it. I don’t always want new characters in my life so I go back to the old ones I know and love. Want something magical find some Harry Potter fanfiction. Want a strong woman lead find some Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction. Some of the authors on the internet are so good they are published, some are even better and never published.

All I do when I want a good read is to curl up with some familiar characters and get lost in their many adventures on the internet.