Reading books at the right time in life

I just finished rereading Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham and what struck me the most after reading it again after all these years was just how much of an impact it had made on my life, both good and bad. I think I was 16 when I first read it and it really shaped my views on relationships and life in general. In many ways, it gave me an unrealistic, romanticized version of life that didn't play out too well in the real world. I also read Catcher in the Rye about the same time, and it had a similar effect.

I don't think these books would have had such an impact if I had read them later in life. On the other hand, I think there are some books that can only be appreciated when one is older. I read Journey to the End of the Night by Céline later in life and I don't think I would have fully understood it when I was younger. It was only because I had already entered the world of work and had experienced life, both the good and the bad, that I was able to appreciate Céline's dark genius. Same thing with writers such as Henry Miller.

Do you think certain books must be read at the right time in life? Are there books you read when you were young that had a somewhat negative effective on you? Don't get me wrong, though. I wouldn't trade it for the world, and there were many positive aspects as well.

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Originally Posted by paradoxical

I just finished rereading Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham and what struck me the most after reading it again after all these years was just how much of an impact it had made on my life, both good and bad. I think I was 16 when I first read it and it really shaped my views on relationships and life in general. In many ways, it gave me an unrealistic, romanticized version of life that didn't play out too well in the real world. I also read Catcher in the Rye about the same time, and it had a similar effect.

I don't think these books would have had such an impact if I had read them later in life. On the other hand, I think there are some books that can only be appreciated when one is older. I read Journey to the End of the Night by Céline later in life and I don't think I would have fully understood it when I was younger. It was only because I had already entered the world of work and had experienced life, both the good and the bad, that I was able to appreciate Céline's dark genius. Same thing with writers such as Henry Miller.

Do you think certain books must be read at the right time in life? Are there books you read when you were young that had a somewhat negative effective on you? Don't get me wrong, though. I wouldn't trade it for the world, and there were many positive aspects as well.

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This is a very interesting question, especially as it comes from someone who has the experience to judge the long term effect of his reading.
I also read Of Human Bondage at an early age and it was a major influence that shaped my life in ways that would not have happened otherwise. Looking back I think that in general terms it opened the way to a much broader outlook than might have been the case had I not read it. It made me travel and learn languages and taught me a lot about human behaviour. Whether I would have been 'happier' without this knowledge is arguable because perhaps ignorance really is bliss, but I can't say what the situation would have been if I had read it much later.
There are some books that are probably best left alone until one has gained some experience and those are books of an overtly political nature that can lead a reader into life changing decisions that a broader outlook might avoid. I read many such books when I was younger only to abandon them when experience taught me that their central premise was wrong. The thing that differentiates Of Human Bondage from one such as Ten Days That Shook the World for example is that, apart from their subject matter, Maugham's book is impartial whereas John Reed's isn't.

I for one know certain books can't be appreciated until later in life, because I haven't been able to appreciate books until now, and I'm sure there'll be books I won't be able to enjoy later. Some books just aren't for *most* young people.

I'm inclined to believe that the truth of your observation is so undeniable as to almost go without saying, although I would broaden it to encompass the entire range of human experience of which reading is (in my existence at least) a top-tier element. Reality (there's that confounded word again) is fundamentally relational in nature, wherefore if we experience something to which we cannot relate in any meaningful sense we cannot readily assimilate it. For this reason I have become an incorrigible "hoarder" with respect to books, much to the chagrin of my family. There are many books I read in my youth that I was ill-equipped to process at the time, but I did retain a sense of latency, a feeling that if I were to reread them at some undefined point in the future I could better unravel their mysteries.