Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Half the problem, though, is that we put children off great literature for life by forcing them to read what are very definitely NOT children's books before they're able to appreciate them.
It will come as no great surprise to many people that one of my favourite authors is Dickens. Like every other British schoolchild I was force-fed Dickens at school and HATED his books. It was only when I was in my late 30s that I rediscovered him and learned to love his books for the great literature that they are. You just can't appreciate Dickens' biting social satire when you're a teenager (or at least I couldn't).
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This is true. In high school I was required to read All Quiet on the Western Front, a modernist war novel, and I still have a bad taste in my mouth. I wonder is someone has come up with a list of classic books to be read at certain ages, like books to be read in your thirties, books to be read in your forties, etc.