Sounds like she has some good ideas for her tenure - I really enjoyed Chris Riddell's stint as laureate.
Childhood books is a big question - Mum and Dad had loads of books, and let us (within reason) roam pretty freely through them - we used the local library a lot too, and I left the children's section for stuff by Ed McBain, Alastair Maclean &c fairly early. I still like McBain, and hardboiled crime fiction in general - going back to the 87th Precinct series, as I do from time to time, feels like greeting old friends. I can also remember really liking Raymond Chandler's Marlowe stories, although I regret not discovering Dashiell Hammett until later in life.
The first book I remember staying up late to finish was "Odd and the Great Bear", by James Roose-
Evans. I remember very little about it now, but it absolutely gripped me, and I suffered for not being able to stop reading it until the small hours on the next day. I still love that feeling of wanting to spend every spare moment reading that some books give you.
