What inspired me to make electronics my hobby and career:

Yesterday, I was browsing old technical manuals on the internet when I came across the book that changed my whole life. I was eleven years old in 1949 and an avid sci-fi reader, inspired by the writings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. I regularly raided my father's private bookshelves to read Edgar Rice Boroughs' Barsoom novels. An old but very well kept book caught my eye one day. The first page stated that It was presented to my father in 1913, when he graduated from Grammar school. It was called "The Boy Electrician". He became an accountant, with very little interest in electricity.
Over the next few years, I read the book a number of times from cover to cover, trying all of the suggested experiments that I could scrounge the materials for. I vividly remember the thrill of seeing my first very crude home made electric motor, rotating all on it's own. I still remember the awe of hearing the loud ticking of a wrist watch in my home made headphones, picked up by a microphone made out of two carbon rods from dead alkaline batteries. My imagination had been ignited and I went on to build a reflex TRF radio using discarded tubes (valves) given to me by the old guy who ran the local radio repair shop, and a multitude of other electronic gadgets. I am still building them. I eventually became an Electronic and Light Electrical Engineer and enjoyed being paid for playing in my main hobby.
What inspired you to get involved in this fascinating hobby/profession?