What was the book for you

I'm going to try something new here and use the books I read as a writing prompt. So this is not a book review. In The Yellow Lighted Bookshop, a memoir of a book-seller and an ode to bookstores in general, the author talks about how reading Steinbeck at age 14 was the spark that ignited his lifelong love of reading.

That got me thinking about what that spark was for me. The short answer is, I have no idea. I enjoyed reading at a very early age. Some of my earliest memories are of books such as Christopher's Parade, Joe Q McClutch, and a book about a zebra titled Alexander. Those were all books I read over and over before I even attended kindergarten. As I got into school, Danny and the Homework Machine, Encyclopedia Brown, the Hardy Boys series, and anything about baseball kept my nose in a book constantly. As I got into high school it was The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and countless other sci-fi and fantasy series. I read a lot of Piers Anthony in high school.

But there is not one book that I can pick out as the "the" book.

What about you? What was "the book" for you? Hit that comment via email link below and let me know.