Well Jules Verne’s “The Mysterious Island” awakened all sorts of engineering thinking in me when I was very little.

My parents were believers in not reading children’s books but actual novels to me, at ages 4+ and they went through most of Verne’s novels, but I will never forget that particular one.

Bootstrapping civilization from literally nothing to gunpowder, steam engines and telegraphs was mesmerizing. I think this was the time I decided I wanted to get involved in engineering in general. I mean McGyver is nice and all but I’ve not seen anything come close to scope and ingenuity as a literary work since.

Also the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. Sabotage of gunpowder stocks, exploding cannons (and cannon operators), and brewing red phosphorus from urine (and subsequently getting run out of town by an angry mob because of the stench).