Light My Fire

Given enough inward thought, most people can remember back to the days of youthful enthusiasm when reading on their own was a new thing to be enjoyed and savored like, well, a good book. To be able to (literally) curl up in a chair and (figuratively) disappear between the pages of a book, without worrying about the petty concerns of the adult world - most of us pine for such days. (In fact, some of us became booksellers with the hope that that was part of the job.) What was it about that first formative volume that really stuck in your craw, leaving a voracity for reading in it's wake? Why did it become a stepping stone to a life of reading rather than just another pile of glue and paper to be tossed aside for something else?

Janet, one of our prime booksellers, posed this question to her peers: What was that first book that really lit your fire and made you realize that escaping into the pages of a book was the greatest activity you could possibly do? Here are our answers:

Janet:  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
John:  The 21 Balloons by William Pene Du Bois
Emily:  Matilda by Roald Dahl
Susan:  The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Adriana:  The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Jan:  Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene
Adrian:  Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Seth:  The Book of Three, then The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander
Vicki:  Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott
Jim:  Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Barbara:  Half Magic by Edward Eager
Heather:  Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott
Rhonda:  Little Pilgrim's Progess by Helen Taylor
James:  The Mouse & the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Rob:  Charlotte's Web by E.B. White and/or James & the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Scott:  E.T. the Extraterrestrial (film novelization)
Steven:  cannot read

What about you, reader? What was that book that first got you interested in reading - enough so that it became a lifelong pursuit, if that is indeed what it has become?