So.....

What was your first on magical/pagan/etc. topics? Does it still inspire you, or have you moved on?

For me it was Animal Speak by Ted Andrews. That got me started on animal magic in general at the very beginning. Since then I've read every book on the topic I can get my hands on, and written one of my own. But Animal Speak is still one that I recomend to newbies along with a few others.

How about the rest of you?

This was all in the late 80's.

My first New Age book (where I got started) was Star Signs by Linda Goodman.

My first Pagan book was Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.

I've grown past Cunningham's books but still use the gem and herb ones for reference now and again.

Spiral Dance. Then I read Scott Cunningham and after that I really haven't read many books on wicca. I have reference books only. It's a practice.

*nods* I stil use Cunningham's guides on occasion--sure, they're someone else;s correspondences, but they're nicely convenient in a pinch.

It was Drawing Down the Moon. I had been on usenes, and that was the most highly recommended one, so that's where I started.

Unfortunately, I don't currently have a copy, as it's one of those books that I loan out, and have to buy again because it doesn't come back.

My first book was "Wicca" by Scott Cunningham. Still one of my favorite authors. But it was "Magick made easy" by Patricia Telesco, which really got to me. I always recomend that book for newbies.
But today I've moved on from Wicca till Pagan.

the electric kool-aid acid test.

then all those carlos castenada (was that his name?)

the aquarian gospel of jesus the christ.

Spiral Dance by Starhawk
This is the book I still hand out to people with questions, but I prefer her later books now.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame was my first ever pagan book. My first ever book about witchcraft was Natural Magic by Doreen Valiente, which I still possess.

The Wind in the Willows still inspires me - yes. I re-read it whenever I feel myself getting caught up in ritual or paraphernalia. Natural Magic has little value for me, anymore, as I turned away from Wicca and left behind many of its witchcraft practices.

My first book was "Wicca" by Scott Cunningham. I have since then moved on, but sometimes when I look for certain information or inspiration, then I go back to that book.

yup, spiral dance was my first one too. then wicca: a guide for the solitary practitioner by scott cunningham, but I like spiral dance better, because I find that it is still useful to me, a year and a half down this path, whereas I find that the cunningham is just not at all useful anymore, and was, for me at least, very much a basics only book. spiral dance is the book I would recomend for anyone interested in paganism. funny, because I was trying to buy something by cunningham or adler or ravenwolf, since those were the people that had been recomended, but spiral dance was the only one the little bookstore had. funny how life turns out eh? just as you need it to.