GATEWAY DRUGS

At 49 Writers, No Moose, Andromeda Romano-Lax is sponsoring a contest for readers who post on Alaskan books that hold special meaning for them. Borrowing a phrase from blogger Patrick Brown, reported in Paper Cuts, which book got you hooked on Alaska and the North?

For me, it was Mrs. Mike, which I recently learned is also one of my Alaskan-born daughter's favorite Northern reads. No matter that it's technically set in the Canadian North - it opened up the subarctic for me. On its heels I read Tisha and later, after I'd accepted a job in Alaska, John McPhee's Coming into the Country.

Special meaning or gateway drug - post your thoughts at 49 Writers, No Moose.