This could be from any age really. I remember reading lots of books like Harry Potter as a 4th grader to seem smart to the teachers looking at me but I didn’t understand any of it. When the big YA dystopian boom was happening, I read tons of terrible YA dystopias to seem cool but many of them frustrated me.
I read The Grapes of Wrath and LotR at 12, both to look smart and at the behest of my dad. Both were beyond what I personally should’ve been reading at that time. But Steinbeck is now one of my favorites and revisiting LotR, I can appreciate the depth of the world building.