![]() ![]() Now I can see both readings at once, like a magic eye painting. When I was 20, I saw Madame Merle as a non-character, a “bad person” who existed just to mess with Isabel. As in, rereading “The Portrait of a Lady” at 40, and finding that the most relatable character is suddenly Madame Merle. The only reading experience I’ve had after 40 that feels truly inaccessible to my earlier self is rereading. What book should nobody read until the age of 40? ![]() Once you read enough, you learn to discard the toxic parts, and keep what helps you. Quantity is important, because books are a product of their time and place, and the toxic ideas of the time get baked in. ![]() To me, “Does this book seem like it could change my life” feels like a more useful question than “Is this a book that everybody should read.” I would invite people under 21 to think of the world as a treasure hunt for life-changing books, with clues everywhere - in other books, on the subway, maybe in The New York Times - and then to read as many of them as possible. What’s the last great book you read?Īdrienne Rich’s “Blood, Bread, and Poetry” - specifically, the essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” What book should everybody read before the age of 21? “Tideline,” by Krystyna Dabrowska, translated by Karen Kovacik, Antonia Lloyd-Jones and Mira Rosenthal. “The Eighth Life (for Brilka),” by Nino Haratischvili, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin. ![]()
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