Enid Blyton!
The first book that was made an impression on me was the first book I read all on my own - Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton. I would have been about 5, and had been desperate to be able to read something for myself. This was my first choice because my parents had an old copy, a small red hardback from the 40s or 50s that smelt musty. Just looking at it seemed exciting! And I loved every second of reading it.

After finishing that one, I went straight into the next.... Everywhere I went during my childhood I had a book with me, especially in the car. Thanks to my mother, my formative years included as many examples of children's literature as she could lay her hands on, courtesy of a weekly trip to the local library.

Books led me to law school, where having to read a seemingly endless supply of musty old books made me give up the idea of reading for pleasure. Until I found the legal theory classes that is.

I can't identify any one book here that was really lifechanging, but the need to engage with what I read, to think about it and not just comprehend it, blew me away. The combination of Hobbes, Locke and Hume, Kant and Marx that we began with opened my eyes to being able to challenge and not just blindly accept what I was reading and what my lecturers said.

Thinking about it, Hobbes' Leviathan was probably my real introduction to not just philosophy and politics but also to reasoned thought and its application, and a whole new world of books. Cheers Thomas!
(Moniker, Mon 19 May 2008, 16:13, Reply)