I think my favourite individual tale is Cinderella. The fact my first published story, A Helping Hand, in Bridge House Publishing's Alternative Renditions collection, is based on this fairytale confirms my bias! My favourite collection of fairytales is the Reader's Digest two volumes set, which has the original versions of stories as written/collected by Perrault, Andersen, the Brothers Grimm etc. I also loved the colour illustrations in these volumes.
I like Cinderella because I've always had a soft spot for the rags to riches and justice will out in the end type stories. Cinderella, of course, has both of these elements to it. So books then are one of the most glorious of all human inventions. Think about the joy, entertainment and education books have brought to people over the centuries!
Working out what you like and why can be a very useful way to working out what it is you want to write. I love reading crime stories and occasionally write some short ones, but my first love has always been the fairytale so this is where I feel most drawn to writing.
So what glorious books encouraged you to want to write and why? What inspiration is driving you on as you work out your characters and plot? Is that inspiration strong enough for a novel or would it be best suited for short stories?
And, of course, if we want books to survive, including the ones we hopefully write and get out there, we ought to be buying them, borrowing them from libraries and so on.