Between Books

I started reading when I was very young. I read everything I could get my hands on. At that time, I read my fair share of nonfiction, but fiction has always been my love. I even read all the Readers Digest condensed books I found around the house. Over the course of time I found a great affinity for fantastic literature, including horror, science fiction & fantasy.
I had a high school teacher who assigned the class to read A Clockwork Orange. It blew me away. I had never read anything like it. I have read a lot of the classics, not just in sf like H. G. Wells, but also Steinbeck, Faulkner, Shakespeare, Chekov (not sure if I'm spelling his name right), Joyce, etc., etc. It was A Clockwork Orange, however, that started me on "genre" literature.
The next book I remember reading that set the hook even deeper, was The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. I was living in an old (late 1600's/early 1700's) farm house with 3 friends, and going to college. And yep, the house was haunted, but that's another story. Of course, while going to school there is very little time to do much pleasure reading, as any student will tell you. So it wasn't until years later that my education in other worlds & realities began in earnest.
More next time.