Book That Inspired You to Write...if Appicable

Well, if we're talking books about writing, Stephen King's On Writing helped demystify the craft and get me thinking, "Maybe I can do this." Also, his book, Misery, never fails to inspire me with all its talk about the value of writing.

I've always liked books and I've always liked writing ever since I was able to read and write, but when I was about 16 I read Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. I'm not sure why, but something about that book made me want to get serious about writing. I don't know that it would affect anybody else in the same way, but it moved me in a way that nothing else had before. There was also an epiphany I had that was just kind of like, Oh, somebody is actually taking this writing thing seriously.

I've written almost every day since.

Also, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men is solely responsible for interesting me in writing short fiction.

EDIT: After re-reading the first post, if you're looking for novels written by exceptionally young people, Jenn Crowell's Necessary Madness is one of the most impressive books I've read recently. She started it when she was 17.

I am slightly ashamed to admit this, but writing stories never really crossed my mind until I read my first piece of online Star Trek Fan Fiction back in 1998...

Well, I decided I wanted to be a writer when I was, uhh, 7. There wasn't any particular book that lead to that; it was just that story writing time was my favorite part of school. The book that lead to me finally getting off my ass and actually picking up a pen was probably Bridget Jones's Diary. (However, I'm horrified by what apparently happens in the third Bridget Jones book and refuse to read it.

These days almost every book I read I will put down after reading a certain paragraph or sentence due to an overwhelming inspiration to write something.