The first book that I fell in love with was The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, which I probably read about fifteen times since my first reading during the second grade. I later read The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy five or six times as well. Among books that I read for the first time during the last five years, the only ones that I’ve reread are Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and I’ve only read those two twice. I guess that I just can’t justify the act of spending my time on a book that I’ve read before when it’s clear that my life won’t even include sufficient time to read all of the good books in the world once.
I forgot to mention the Anne of Green Gables books. Absolutely wonderful.
I’ll second both of those. I reread Pride and Prejudice every time I move. Makes it feel like coming home, somehow. I’ll also add:
- Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin
- The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
This is a chick-list, isn’t it? 
Man, you people all came to love reading late. The first book I fell in love with was called ‘Herman the Helper’ and I first read it in Kindergarten. It got so bad that when I was in the first grade, my teacher wouldn’t let me sign it out of the library anymore, because I’d borrowed it dozens of times over the two years.
Who? Me? Obessive? Never! Why do you ask?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love to read. I started at age three with * Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now, * by Dr. Suess, and since then, I’ve been an adict. I have so many favorites that the Boards would implode if I tried to list them all.
Between my parents and myself (started reading early), I went through a lot of books, but the first one I really fell in love with was the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. I remember being really excited a couple years later when I saw the ads for Disney’s “The Black Cauldron”, and then really upset because they had the audacity to combine the plots from the first two books! I had to explain to my parents that it was all wrong, the Horned King was already dead before they went out looking for the cauldron. I was nine, cut me some slack
Favorite authors now would be Neil Gaimen, Heinlein, and Harry Harrison’s “Stainless Steel Rat” series (at least the early ones).
Voyage to the Mushroom Planet which is a kind of a Rocket Ship Galileo without the Nazis for first graders.
Top 3 now would be Brave New World, Unbearable Lightness of Being and then Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Ok, I had to think a bit, since I’ve been reading almost as long as I can remember. But I think the first book that really stuck with me was Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. The whole idea that there were whole worlds out that that we could barely perceive boggled my young little mind.
Favorite books:
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The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. An absolute gem. I read it for the first time in 1968, and have lost count of how many times I’ve read it since. I still cry when I read it.
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The Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. A wonderful, wonderful book that just gets better with re-reading.
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Lord of the Rings, I guess. Just because.
That said, I never really get tired of Jane Austen or P.G. Wodehouse. When I feel like falling in love, I re-read Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. The Tale of Beren and Luthien in The Silmarillion is just wonderful.
So many books, so little time.
I can’t really remember what I started out reading, except the Hardy Boys Series when I was very young.
My favorite is OSC’s Ender’s Game, defintely. The rest of the series is nowhere near what that book was.
/Shadez
“color me tickled pink!”