The Amityville Horror
I was about seven when I read this book. I know that's crazy, but what happened was I stole it because I saw the cover and knew that I shouldn't be reading it. Of course I had to know why I wasn't allowed so I took it and kept it hidden under my mattress (the first of many things to be hidden there through the years). I find it funny for two reasons - 1 - What a geek I was that my first act of defiance was stealing a book and 2 - I scared the crap out of myself on purpose, which I still enjoy doing.
What this book did was make me believe that there was something green and glowing living in my bathroom at night so I stopped going in there. I was terrified of it - whatever this "presence" was in the house in Amityville that made the men slaughter their families. I thought that whatever it was, it had to be what caused the strange green glow in the bathroom (now I know it was a night light and green paint but that idea never occurred to me at seven). So I stopped going and began wetting the bed.
My poor mother, suddenly at seven years old, her daughter begins this strange bed wetting stage that she can't explain. I think that the bed wetting lead to her discovery of the book under my mattress and I was never able to finish it, at least not until I was old enough.
I wonder if this is where my fascination with horror came from - my need to question what was being kept from me which draws back in the theme of searching and hypertext. The nature of hypertext breaks down boundaries of knowledge as property with which one can chose to barter with - or protect.
Of course this lead to more fascination with mystery genre as I grew older.