For example, who's to say that I can't pick up a Mr Men or Little Miss book and read it from cover to cover and enjoy every word of it? This is with remembering that I am 18 years old and I could probably do that in around 5 minutes. I loved reading those books when I was younger and when I think about the stories now I still smile. I loved the adventures and the characters and how I could relate the things that they did to things that happened in real life. They made the world seem simpler and a little less scary.
The reason I was thinking about this was because I was on the bus yesterday reading Peter Pan by JM Barrie and people began looking at me strangely. I understand that it is considered a "children's classic" but the story is loved by so many people, all of a variety of ages, I just happened to be the one who decided to read it on the bus. I was reading this book not because I thought it would be a good read, I knew it would be. I was reading it because I love the story of Peter Pan. I enjoy reading it and it reminds me of my childhood.
I don't understand why there needs to be an age where you have to stop reading certain books. Who says you can't pick up a book that you read when you were 10 and read it again when you are 20 and still be just as in love with it. Who made these rules?
I mean Harry Potter is one of those books that you can read at any age. Just think about it. If you were to go into a coffee shop and see an old man sitting in the corner reading the first Harry Potter book while at the opposite end of the shop was a little girl reading the same story, how would you react?
I bet most of you would begin to think about your own memories of reading the book and how you felt when Harry, Ron and Hermione first met. I bet you think about how old you were when you first picked up the book. What if I was to tell you that the little girl was reading it for the second time while it was the first time that the old man had read those words. How would you react then? Would you judge the old man or would you smile and appreciate that he was taking the time to read it?
Ok, I understand that some books need an age restriction because of the content. I understand that it would be highly inappropriate to give a 10 year old a book like 50 Shades of Grey to read. But that is a restriction, not a limit.
Isn't one of the best things about books the fact that you can go back to them again and again and still fall in love with the story? But how can you do that if you grow up and exceed the age limit? I always find a new sense of love for a story when I re-read a book, even books that I read when I was 5 or 6 years old.
A lot of adults (I don't yet consider myself to be a fully-fledged adult) I know said that they couldn't wait until their children were old enough that they could read books to them. This was just so that they had a reason to go into a book shop and go to the children's section and pick up all of the picture books they loved while they were growing up. Yep, the truth is kids, your parents had you so that it was acceptable for them to read their favourite books again... sorry to break the news to you.
I know that the limit is just how books are categorised in bookstores and how advertising companies know how to advertise the book but it is still something that people stick to. In an ideal world people wouldn't judge others but that is not the world we live in.
The stares will just have be accepted.
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