What are your favourite fairy stories and very importantly why?

Do you prefer the brutal old forms of these stories, do you like modern fairy stories or do you prefer older ones that have been ‘disneyed up’?

What nobody likes fairy stories!

TV weather reports

I prefer the older ones. Mainly, because they showed that life isn't always easy and sometimes the peasant girl doesn't become a princess. They were brutal and quite morbit, but I loved them even as a kid.

Indie-AKA:Ms. Ogg

When I was small I loved any fairy tale that featured a beautiful but long-suffering princess and a happy ending.

These days I prefer the older, morbid stories.

Exorcist and Omen

I would read them to my kids any day - they like it actually....

When I was a kid I was a fairy tale addict. I remember that over the course of a year, I read every fairy tale book in the main branch of the Chicago library. Every two weeks I left with as many books as I could carry! My favorites were the Andrew Lang series of collected world fairy tales, with each book arbitrarily titled by a different "color". As I read I felt transported by these tales to magical exotic realms and mystical times.

The most memorable fairy tales for me though were the Russian tales of the witch Baba Yaga. What horrible nightmares they gave me -- but I was truly hooked!! Fairy tales quickly transitioned me to a lifelong love of science fiction, fantasy, and horror literature.