It’s easy to feel like you’re not a serious reader if you don’t have a list of classics that you can readily discuss the merits of because you’ve read them and adored them.

I consider myself a serious reader and realize all of the classics that I’ve never read and instead of feeling bad about it, I add them to my list when the mood strikes me and I’ll get to them when I feel like it. I’ve written before about being a mood reader. Recently, I’ve been in the mood for a few classics: Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Each was inspired by another book that finally pushed me to read them. For Moby Dick it was Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. For Silent Spring it was Bryan Walsh’s End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World: Asteroids, Super Volcanoes, Rogue Robots, and More. For The Wonderful Wizard of Oz it was Marvel’s adaptation of the book into a graphic novel by Eric Shanower and illustrated by Skottie Young.

There’s often a push to read a classic before you’re ready for it, simply because it’s a classic. There is such a thing as the time being right: I remember reading The Great Gatsby in high school and hating it, then reading it in college and loving it. Would I have been ready for Moby Dick 10 or 15 years ago? Probably not. But I wanted to now and that has made all the difference.

And the receptivity to the book has to play a part in the enjoyment of reading, which is why it is important that kids have choice in their reading because choice (be it mood, interest, level, background) plays a part in how we read the book. Have you read Frankenstein to an adult is akin to have you read Harry Potter to a kid. Not all are interested nor ready for it and that’s okay. We will be some day. Or not.

Give yourself a break if you’re staring at the stack of oldies that you should read but aren’t. You’ll be ready one day. Or not. And that’s okay. But if you are, enjoy the ride. Know your own reading life. And know when to read that book recommended by a friend or that classic or that book that’s been sitting on your TBR for three years.