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!
Absolutely.
If I had read Wheel of Time when I was a lot younger and just starting out in fantasy I would have loved it waaaaaay more than as a veteran fantasy reader at 45 who can recognize tropes and faults with it.
Thought about this for like 10 minutes and I’d want to read a great book earlier, like 10-15 years old when I stopped reading. My entire life before that point, I never really read, I thought I just wasn’t smart because I “didn’t like to read.” I did, I just didn’t realize it.
So, my pick would be Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Besides a horribly long conversation near the beginning of the book, it’s basically perfect: half a masterpiece, as I say. I think that book would’ve gotten me into reading fantasy way earlier.
I read Harry Potter when I was 21, I’m 25 now. I wish I read it during the hype.