Who was your first crush? Was it the flush-cheeked boy who rode past your house every afternoon, or the freckled girl who sat in the front of the class? Or… was it a high-wattage figure, staring out at you from the silver screen, bedroom posters and the latest issue of Tiger Beat?

Cathy Alter and Dave Singleton’s Crush (William Morrow) spotlights the latter with 38 essays from your favorite writers waxing on about their own celeb swooning. It’s an impressive roster, each with their own enlightening entry. For instance, poet David Keplinger, who fawned over Deborah Harry, and journalist and NPR cohost Hanna Rosin, who had eyes for Mick Jagger (and his lips). And horror maestro Stephen King, who confessed about falling for Kim Novak in Picnic at the age of… eight. “I feel deeply in love, although she was adult and terrifying,” he writes. “I could imagine a kiss from her as being a prelude to ingesting me whole, but that would have been okay. Just fine, in fact.”