What were your favorite books as a child, and why?
When I was too young to read, my parents bought me a new, hard cover edition of the Oz books, by L. Frank Baum. (They're now known as the "white cover" Oz books, and came out in the 60's.) I can't say for sure why they picked the Oz books, which originally came out in the early 1900's. I was fascinated with the Judy Garland version of "The Wizard of Oz" movie, but I don't know which was the cause and which the effect -- the movie only came on TV once a year, at the time.
From the time I was old enough to read, I read through those books over and over, in order: As soon as I finished "Glinda of Oz", I'd go right back to the beginning and read "The Wizard of Oz" again. I still have those books, although at the moment they're scattered around the house instead of together, as they should be.
I was carried away from my sometimes not-fun life to a world in which magic happened, all sorts of weird things were possible, and people became true friends no matter how different they were. Also, I fell in love with both Dorothy (blonde, dammit!) and Ozma. Here's the cover to Baum's last book, although of course other writers put out dozens of Oz books after he passed away:
