[Billthedrill]

Well, that's a very important point. I will say that with respect to Huckleberry Finn as well - without being too condescending, a young person simply does not have the necessary life experience to extract full value from any deep work of fiction. That's a very touchy thing to try to communicate to a young person.

So we re-read the good ones. So many books, so little time...

[carton253]

I first read GWTW at 14 and have read it numerous times.... but took a long break from it. When I picked it back up, I was amazed to see how my responses to the characters changed.

I think you are right about life experience. It took some brutals one for me to understand the book.

[Sam Cree]

I liked Huckleberry Finn as a teenager, when we were assigned it...I liked most of the assigned reading, in fact.

But you are right, today Huckleberry Finn towers above alot of the other stuff we had to read, which includes Mockingbird, though I admit to not having reread that one...or Moby Dick either(!).

One thing about assigned reading in the early 60’s, most of the books were good reads at least. My kids were in high school in the 90’s; seeing the tedious stuff they were assigned, I couldn’t help thinking that the English department was doing its best to make the kids hate reading forever.