The Hobbit was important for me too. I wouldn't have read it without the C64 adventure game (same with Color of Magic). I was probably only around 7 years old s

The Hobbit was important for me too. I wouldn't have read it without the C64 adventure game (same with Color of Magic). I was probably only around 7 years old so it was a big book and took me a while to get through and kicked off a love of reading. Around the same time I read the whole Narnia series. Then next came the Lord of the Rings which was a multi-year epic for me. Strangely, the Fighting Fantasy series was also a big influence - a cousin gave me Citadel of Chaos just after it came out and it really pushed my interesting in books and a an only child I tracked down almost every solo roleplaying booking I could find. I also loved Eric the Viking ( the Terry Jones version ), which I now read to my children and The Odysseus books that Tony Robinson wrote that kicked off an interest in mythology.