I’ve always loved reading, but I remember being assigned Pride and Prejudice at age 14. I just plain didn’t get it. Like, I thought the first sentence was pompous, I didn’t realize it was supposed to be funny! So I decided I hated Jane Austen. When I was much older I re-read the book and it felt completely different.

I don’t really blame my teacher, because I had friends in the class who loved the book. I simply wasn’t ready for it—some books need a certain amount of maturity or experience, which I didn’t have.

There’s a long history of people telling you who is OK to read and who isn’t.

With some distance (whether decades or centuries) how do you feel about those people?