Flavorwire

Most of today’s twenty-somethings grew up reading the Harry Potter series, but have you ever wondered what books J.K. Rowling escaped with when she was young enough to be a first year at Hogwarts? “The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge; Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott; Manxmouse, by Paul Gallico; everything by Noel Streatfeild; everything by E. Nesbit; Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell (indeed, anything with a horse in it),” she tells The New York Times in the latest installment of the paper’s “By the Book” column. Rowling also reveals the last truly great book she read (Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin), her literary heroine (“It is hard to overstate what [Jo March] meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer”), as well as the last book that made her cry: “The honest answer is The Casual Vacancy. I bawled while writing the ending, while rereading it and when editing it.” Rather surprising, right? Head here to check out the full interview now.