Is There a Right Age to Read a Book?

[MickiTee]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I have to agree with Harry on this one. I, too, was forced to read many 'great works' in middle school, and it put me off Dickens, Bronte, Hardy, and several others for many, many years. Reading them again as an adult was a wonderful experience, especially as I was sure I'd be bored to tears yet again. On the other hand, there were many books that I loved as a young teen that I simply can't get past the first 30 pages of today. So yes, I think there really is an age related to each book, but it might not be chronological. Different people will react differently at different ages.


Stitchawl

I agree with both Harry and Stitchawl about the harm school reading lists can do. Like Harry I was forced to read Dickens at school. I hated them then and I still hate them today. What's worse I can't stand watching TV or film adaptations either. And it not just Dickens its all classics.

The book I tried when I was in my late teens was John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy. Way too young to sort out the convoluted plot. I finally suceeded in reading this and its sequel only after the great BBC TV adaptation starting Alec Guiness. The problem is I still find him difficult to read and he wrote the sort of novels I was really into during my twenties & thirties.

By comparison I read Leon Uris' Exodus at thirteen. It took me a week then and I went on to many of his works.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by MickiTee

I agree with both Harry and Stitchawl about the harm school reading lists can do. Like Harry I was forced to read Dickens at school. I hated them then and I still hate them today. What's worse I can't stand watching TV or film adaptations either. And it not just Dickens its all classics.

That's very sad. What makes a classic a classic is the very fact that it's a great read.

[owly]

Then there are books that have some nasty violence in them. I remember a really nasty rape scene in the The Fionavar Tapestry series by Guy Gavriel Kay. Unfortuntly they had been classed as childrens litt. by people who didn't know better and I was much too young when I read it.