My first experience was also Katawa Shoujo. I don't know why it's so common that people start with it. It's sort of strange. Two of my friends had already played it and they both recommended it to me. Before then I didn't even know what a visual novel game was. Once they described it to me, though, I realized that it must be awesome to play. So that's basically how I got into it. Now I just have a list of like 20 right now that I love to play through whenever I have free time. Like today, a lazy Sunday afternoon.