Have you ever wished you had read a book earlier on in life? Maybe a classic you neglected to read in school? I didn't read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "The Little Prince" until I was an adult and I always wondered how I would have reacted to it as a child.
That's a hard question to answer, because there's a TON of stuff I wish I'd read earlier, but who was I earlier? When I was a kid, I wouldn't have understood a lot of the stuff I value highly now. When I was going through the throes of maturing intellectually (I mean, like a lot of people, I thought I knew everything when I was in university and now that I've learned more, I think I know almost nothing), I would have reacted differently to some things than I do now. I haven't stopped growing and learning. Maybe the books come along when I need them. Maybe if certain books had come along earlier, I would be a different person now. I do know that I wish I'd encountered Vladimir Nabokov a decade or two earlier than I did. I wish I'd read William Blake before I did. Also Walt Whitman. I'm still waiting to tackle a verse translation of the Divine Comedy - I tried it as a teen, but I wasn't ready. I think I read Hemingway and Steinbeck at the right time, as well as Robinson Jeffers and Anthony Burgess and William Butler Yeats. There's a lot to this question, and I'll have to think about it more.
I can't think of any off the top of my head, but occasionally I've had books that I wish I'd read later in life. I think there are a lot of books that teens read in high school that they aren't really ready for, and as a result, think they're boring. I've had a much better appreciation of some of the classics that I've re-read with "wiser eyes." So reading something earlier doesn't necessarily mean you would have gotten out of it what you see now. And it might have even created a negative impression for whatever reason that could make you reluctant to read it later. Maybe you read them when you're ready. Just be glad you finally did.
The thing is, I appreciate literature a lot more now than I did back even a few years ago. So there aren't any books I wish I'd read earlier. It's the opposite really. I'd like to revisit some of the books I read during my high school years because I know for a fact I didn't fully appreciate/understand them at the time.
That's the same for me. There are books I wish I'd read earlier, but there are also books I was forced to read in school that I wasn't ready for. I wish I'd encountered them later.
I'm actually surprised you guys read that in school. I thought To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't taught outside of the US (and some places in Canada).
In my state at least, New South Wales, we seemed to use a fair bit of American literature. There was some Aussie stuff, naturally, but we also covered Huck Finn and the British Lord of the Flies. I guess the themes of racism, inequity and injustice are universal.
The first book I consciously thought 'I wish I had read this earlier' was with Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. I read it at the end of last year and I just know that my younger self would have liked it. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck too, I really really liked that book. There are, though, a lot more books I'm glad I waited for. If you want, PM me and I can suggest a few translations or editions. I know The Comedy is really hard first time around.
Not really, I can't think of any book that has had such an impact on my life that I wish I wish I'd read it earlier, but then again I'm still quite young (22). I'm sure this answer will change when I'm an old man.
Really wish that I had read The Lord of the Flies when I was 12 years old, instead of 22, and having already read Heart of Darkness when I was 16. It was still a very good book, but I couldn't help looking at it as a diminished version of Conrad's classic, intended for a younger audience.
The very opposite happened to me with these two. I had them pushed on me too early and by inept hands. Steinbeck in particular. I had a phobia-like abhorrence for his work for too long because of it.
