We all have a few: the books we read when we were young that altered everything. These were the world-changers, the reality-definers, the stories you died over, gushed to your friends about, pushed into the hands of boyfriends and girlfriends, urgently, sincerely. They were pivotal, inspirational, important.
And then: you grow up a bit and return to the books that started a revolution in the way you existed in the world, the ones you thought would change you ever-after, and you think, oh, goddammit, that’s what had me so hot-and-bothered? And this is fine, this is natural. You were changed for a time, and changed again. You get older, you learn some things. Which is not to say the books below ought be avoided altogether. No, these are a few of the books that knocked you off the roof when you were a kid, that fall flat to re-read right now (plus a few suggestions on grown-up alternatives).
What you loved: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Why you shouldn’t now: When you were a kid, and therefore infallible, Rand’s Objectivist novel about architecture and individualism blew your doors off. But Rand’s a lot like Michael Moore — so ham-fisted she undermines her own work and is ever preaching to choir.
Read Instead: The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kuntsler
via flavorwire.com
