The first book I ever read to death was The Big Little Golden Book of Natural History. Dated even then--swamp-dwelling diplodoci and the Great Chain of Being--but it started my love of natural history.

Then The Chronicles of Narnia and Little House on the Prairie for lessons in courage, humility, and decency. An illustrated King James bible and a comic-book-style Children's Bible got me reading the Bible earlier than I would have.

At summer camp, the only little kid there because my mother was the cook, I had nothing to read but The Golden Bough, a bunch of paperback shortstoryizations of Star Trek Original Series episodes, and a huge stack of ancient Life and Reader's Digest back issues. An unconventional education in the possibilities of imagination.

When the Sky is Like Lace. It still rings in my memory. I wish the publisher would reprint it. I still love bimulous nights.

A Child's Garden of Verse got me into poetry, specifically accessible rhyming and/or rhythmic poetry, which I still devour--Millay, Frost, Tennyson, etc.

Tolkien! I had to grow into the books. Taught me how much one person can do with imagination and a pen--and what greatness one Christian can contribute to others.