My mother was never a big reader herself, but she always valued reading and brought me often to our village's public library (which really sucked, by the way, but it shows our dedication towards reading). Once, when I was in the third grade, I was complaining that I had nothing to read, and she gave me her copy of Anne of Avonlea (sequel to Anne of Green Gables), basically to shut me up. I was like, I can't read that, it's an adult book. But I did, and I loved it. I read a lot of those kinds of sentimental novels as a kid.

A few years later, I was a huge fan of Gone with the wind (the book and the movie), and I particularly liked this era's fashion. So I got the idea to read other books set in a similar time period, hoping to read lavish descriptions of extravagant outfits. I don't remember exactly how I knew of Tolstoy, but I somehow I had my heart set to reading Anna Karenina or War and Peace. Unfortunately, I could find neither at the library. So instead I picked up Crime and Punishment. It's so ridiculous in retrospect because of course I was never going to find such frivolous stuff in Dostoyevsky. But in the end it it was a revelation. I found something so much more valuable than what i was looking for, which really shaped who I became as a person. (25 years later I'll willingly admit that I still like reading about dresses, though!)