EXCERPT: 'Shooting Stars,' by LeBron James

Sept. 9, 2009— -- In his book "Shooting Stars," LeBron James, one of the highest-paid players in basketball, tells the story of his meteoric rise to superstardom.

Check out an excerpt of the book below and then head to the "GMA" Library for some more great reads.

Whatever I went through, I always loved Akron. And even back then, growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, there was one thing that always bothered me. In school, whenever I looked at a map of the United States—because you know how schools are, there is always a map of the United States in every classroom—the first thing I did was look at Ohio. There was Cleveland, of course, because everybody knew Cleveland, former home of the legendary Browns and Jimmy Brown, home of the Indians. On some maps there might be the state capital of Columbus. Or even Cincinnati. But where was Akron? How come there was never Akron?

Akron who? Akron where?

Akron nobody, as far as the mapmakers were concerned. That always got to me. Why wasn't my hometown there? I don't remember how old I was exactly, maybe eight or nine. But I promised myself, in the funny way that little kids make promises over things that nobody else in the world cares about, that one day I was going to put Akron on the map. Maybe not literally, because you could tell those mapmakers were a prickly bunch, but I was going to let the world know where Akron was. I didn't know how. I just knew in my heart I was going to do it.

Excerpted from Shooting Stars by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger. Reprinted by arrangement with The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc. Copyright (c) September 2009.