When you put it that way, I'm thinking we should prohibit alchohol!

That is not the lesson I learnt from Animal Farm.

Nor is it the lesson I learned. It was a jab, nothing more.

The lesson is that corruption undermines the goal of revolution.

Perhaps you and I did learn something different from the book. What I learned was more in line with the "moral" you gave, the one about always keeping an eye on the person who's doing the talking or controlling the information. What you state as "the lesson" is anemic as far as lessons go (I don't need to read a book like Animal Farm to learn that corruption undermines things. That's just common sense). A lesson is supposed to teach you something that can help you later in life. Questioning those who (attempt to) control information is a good lesson.

Can I now say that you "wasted your time" and you "didn't bother absorbing the book" because we disagree? Or can we just accept that different people learn different lessons.

I'm not going to tell you what to do. However, I'm sure lots of others here would be happy to do so. Perhaps you should ask one of them?