Chances are you'll notice that it's a shallow, narcissistic whine

Books have their own sweet spot. Some arrive too late (the window for The Cather in the Rye is narrow; read it after the age of 16, and chances are you'll notice that it's a shallow, narcissistic whine) and some too soon: I was put off the whole of Russian literature by too early an encounter with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But others have perfect pitch and perfect timing, and recalling your first encounter is like remembering a summer day from your teens. They're the books that lodge in your heart while it's still wide open. and they become the platform the reading that you'll do ever after.

I read enough at that age to have a fairly wide platform, even it 's one whose strength I've not often tested in the intervening years. Nobody wants to discover that they're walking on rotting woodwork.

M. Herron,'Partying down at the Palace', Slightly Foxed 66 (2020), 35