People having different reactions and opinions about books does NOT necessarily mean it’s due to their own related experience or not.

“If you didn’t like Book X, you must not understand experience Y” is an assumption about the reader rather than an argument about the book.

I told my high school English teacher I wanted a book with angst, so he told me to read Crime and Punishment.

I’d never read a book that was a classic and over a century old that gave me so much catharsis. I related to Raskolnikov’s anxiety, I needed Razumikhin’s humor, I loved Dounia’s independence, and Sonia’s grace. The villains made me rage and the heroes gave me hope.

He was a great teacher.