My first book on magic was A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was a single story which expanded into a long-standing series about Ged, the greatest wizard known to his age, and the many mistakes made in his youth which inspired a battle against his dark side, before he righted himself with his darkness.
As a Black boy, I always had a fascination with stories of boys with more to offer than what the world had the ability to see in them. Le Guin offered something along that line—the fantasy of untapped potential, of surviving poverty, of coming to terms with one’s dark side.