My most treasured book from my childhood was a pop-up version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. My incessant reading of it led to long-lasting obsessions with: submarines (sated with frequent visits to the U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago); octopi, preferably of the gigantic variety (never really sated, but I once got a nice rubber octopus toy from Sea World); the Lost Continent of Atlantis, and whirlpools. So I visited the used-book stalwarts of the Internet, and finally found a copy, in pristine condition no less, at some tiny Canadian place online. I paid whatever it was they asked, including that crazy VAT stuff. And now I read it to my kids, share it with them, and keep it on a shelf where it can survive for them to read to their kids.
