Literary Blog Hop: The Path to Awesome

This blog hop, hosted at The Blue Bookcase, is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion.
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How did you find your way to reading literary fiction and nonfiction?

Thinking back on my path to literary works, or to awesomeness, is not easy. I have always been an avid reader. My love affair with books predates specific memory; the running joke in my family about me being a voracious reader began when I was still in grade school and has persisted to this day. Most of my reading at the time revolved around such joys as Gary Paulsen, the Babysitters Club, etc., but looking back, I think that what really got me going on the more mature of literary fiction was Shakespeare. Now, I realize he is drama, so let me explain.

I started reading Shakespeare quite young - fifth grade or so - because I had heard he was the creme de la creme of reading. My slightly egotistic mind naturally decided to read him then. King Lear was my first and I loved it despite not entirely understanding it at the time. The difficulty of Shakespeare's works didn't turn me off from him and I continued reading his plays from time to time during grade school, but the difficulty did make me reassess actually focusing on getting through his canon (a word I did not know at the time). So instead of forcing myself to stick to Shakespeare, I branched out into literary fiction (another word I did not know at the time). I can't remember the first lit fic book I read, but that's when the whole hot mess of devouring literature started.

Some works I, of course, read for classes like True Grit by Charles Portis which I remember from seventh grade, but I read many more books for pleasure than were assigned by teachers. Over my grade school and high school years, I went through truckloads of books and that tendency just continued into college. I completely bypassed young adult lit when I was a young adult and focused primarily on classic novels. It wasn't until I was out of college and read Harry Potter for the first time that I started reading YAL.

As for literary nonfiction, figuring out the origins of that particularly form for me is much more difficult. I don't read a ton of lit nonfic as it is, so determining the beginning is practically impossible. I would hazard a guess that most of my experience with nonfiction before college was not of the literary variety. In college, however, I started reading more story-oriented nonfiction, at first for classes and then for pleasure. What book came first is beyond me, but I have fond memories of one class where we read books like Patrimony by Philip Roth, The Rice Room by Ben Fong-Torres, The Latin Deli by Judith Ortiz-Cofer, and Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions by Lame Deer. These may have paved the way for literary nonfiction.


What about you guys? How did you start on the path to awesomeness?