I feel a little jealous that I have not read, discovered Ellison and Sturgeon after your lovely homages to them. I do wonder often how the work we read at certain ages impresses on us a great deal, especially in our writing. I did read a great deal of Ray Bradbury and have been recently rereading him as well, I discovered McKillip around the same time and Tanith Lee later.

I like to measure my life by reading material and find it funny to remember that my middle school years were painted deeply by reading a little Keats, a little Shelley, pouring over PreRaphaelite art books, discovering Greek tragedies and Shakespeare in the same year. I still hesitate over Keats moth-like in any library, finger sketches of his dying face, reread "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and then sigh put the book down and try to unweave thoughts again.