My friends and I were having a discussion about our favourite books and we talked about “being too late” to appreciate a book. I kind of get the sentiment and was wondering if others agree. So one of my favourite books of all time is Perks of Being a Wallflower and read it when I was 17 and I remember just thinking about it for a long time and always going back to it. It just cut so deep unlike anything else. I wondered if I had read it now at 29 if it would have nearly the same impact.
Also, I read Looking For Alaska for the first time this year and while I enjoyed it, I found myself wondering how blown away I would have been reading it as a teenager. I just know I would have appreciated it so much more and while I still love John Green I don’t know if his books will ever hit me the same again.
On the other hand, I’m sure there are books that I didn’t appreciate before that I certainly would now!
I wish I had read The Railway Children when I was young. When I was about 12 I got the 100 classic book collection DS cartridge and I read The Secret Garden, Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, etc and I got pretty into classics. I think I would have appreciated The Railway Children more if I had read it at that age, unfortunately I didn’t have access to it. It wasn’t on the DS cartridge and there weren’t any copies in the school library.
I completely forgot about “100 Classic Books” for the DS - and there were UK, German and French editions as well. That would a fun novelty title for my DS collection if I can find a cheap copy of it (especially if it still had the case).