In the America thread [MENTION=22849]Stato[/MENTION] raised the interesting point that there are some books to read when young, in particular, citing Catcher in the Rye and On the Road. I read both of those in my teens and have not returned to them since. I loved them at 16/17, I'm not sure I'd like them now,
Got my thinking about other authors who lose their appeal after you've turned 30. I suggest Tolkien (although I hated him as a teenager), Hesse and most science fiction/ fantasy writers. I'd imagine Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore are books for young minds only - they started writing when I was a middle-aged so passed me by.
One for me is Mervyn Peake: loved the Gormenghast books as a young adult, started re-reading Titus Groan a few years and thought it was awful.
Any more?
Got my thinking about other authors who lose their appeal after you've turned 30. I suggest Tolkien (although I hated him as a teenager), Hesse and most science fiction/ fantasy writers. I'd imagine Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore are books for young minds only - they started writing when I was a middle-aged so passed me by.
One for me is Mervyn Peake: loved the Gormenghast books as a young adult, started re-reading Titus Groan a few years and thought it was awful.
Any more?