My mom had so many weird books including the Gay Talese anthology, John Waters' autobiography, Hollywood Babylon filled with lurid Old Hollywood scandals and I read them all before I turned 12.Quite the education.

Anonymous wrote:I read all of the Jackie Collins books when I was in MS. Not sure how I got them, but knew they were "bad" because I recall slouching down in my seat on the school bus and reading the book inside of a large history or science book. Probably why I became so promiscuous as a teen

I read all her books in middle school as well and was definitely not promiscuous. If anything, it taught me sex was complicated, even amongst adults and I should be more mature before attempting such things. However, I did understand a lot of dirty jokes.

My sister’s Marquis de Sade books

I was an avid reader as a child and had read through the Nancy Drew, Famous Five and Hardy Boys type series when I was quite young. I had read all books I could find. When I was 9-10, I saw a book on the kitchen table I had never read but when I went to take me, my mother grabbed it and told me I was never to read that book! Made me very curious and one night when they were out and we had a babysitter, I went through their bedroom and found it in the back of a filing cabinet. Read it. Turns out it was a non fiction book about the murder of a family and it went into many adult themes and have graphic descriptions of the crime and the fatal injuries the adults and children sustained as they were chopped to death with an axe.

I was both curious and horrified at the same time but I had nightmares after that and slept with a light on my in bedroom for about 5 years.

Lol so many sex books, my parents had Anais Nin Delta of Venus erotica book on the shelf, also Shere Hites The Hite Report with interviews with women about their sex lives, it’s where I learned about the clitoris and oral sex

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with all of you 80's kids. I read Danielle Steele, Jackie Collins, Judith Krantz, Judy Blume and Sidney Sheldon. I remeber reading Flowers in the Attic but I don't think I read V.C. Andrews much beyond that. I was never into Stephen King or other horror, true crime or sci-fi.

I remember my parents trying to keep me away from Forever but we all got ahold of it and read the good parts in late elementary school.

Now imagine your 9th grade English teacher giving everyone a copy of Forever and announcing that the literature unit for the next six weeks will be crafted around this book and exploring “sometimes uncomfortable” themes.
This is basically how it is now.
They just send an email to notify parents that the book contains “sexually explicit content” and if the parent wants to, they can request alternative literature that does NOT contain sexually explicit content.

Let that sink in.

The teachers are telling us that their default is choosing literature that contains sexually-explicit material.

You must make a special *request* if you do NOT want sexually-explicit literature introduced to your child in the classroom.

Wild.

I have a ninth grader reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Last year Animal Farm and Romeo and Juliet.

So stuff I read in school.

Do you have an article about these English lit units.

Anonymous wrote:Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying.

I may be older than a lot of you.

I am older, too, and this was one I read and all her other books. I read "Love Story" in 5th or 6th grade, teacher got mad at me for reading it in class lol.

Penthouse, Playboy and such

Anonymous wrote:I read American Psycho when I was 12 because my visiting uncle had brought it and left it in the guest room.

Oh my god, it messed me up. For those of you have only seen the movie and not read the book, the book makes the movie look like a Hallmark film. It is narrated in the first person, with detailed descriptions of rape and torture.

I was horrified but could not stop reading it. My mom was FURIOUS at my uncle when she found it in my room and thumbed through it.

Omg I got that book as an ADULT because I like murder mysteries. I didn't finish it- obviously- but even the first few murders completely scarred me, as a 30-something woman.

I read a lot of John Grisham when I was in 5th or 6th grade. Initially The Client, because the protagonist was also a kid so I liked it. But then I read A Time To Kill when I couldn't have been older than 12 and it gave me nightmares.

I got into my cousin's Stephen King novels when I was 10-11. Pet Sematary and It. Some of the abuse stuff in It went over my head but other stuff did not. Definitely not an appropriate read.

I picked up Go Ask Alice at the library around the same age and my mother, who didn't believe at all in censoring books, said that I could read it if I wanted but she'd prefer that I wait. I put it back. I read it a few years later and got why, but it wasn't any worse than a bunch of stuff I'd already read--the difference was, she hadn't read any of those and she knew that one. Oh well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember to opt your kids out of Grapes of Wrath. Lots of trauma and a woman breast feeds a man at the end. (sorry to ruin it).

Trauma? It was reflective of actual historical events.

And the ending scene had absolutely nothing sexual about it - a malnourished man was on his death bed and a woman unselfishly decided to nourish him to save his life.

Maybe you should go back and re read it.

DP. I had assumed this was PP’s way of throwing shade around those complained about the recent books being taught in English class.

This is the books thread. Are you always so literal?

Thank you, yes. I was throwing shade on the book burners.

I don’t have a book that I remember, but I did read my older sister’s copies of True Confessions in elementary school. This is how I learned about what happens on the wedding night, lol.

I tried to tell my friends, no one believed me! One acquaintance asked her mother who apparently told her it wasn’t true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 50 and have multiple older sisters who left stuff laying around which I devoured.
+1 to VC Andrews - I read ALL of them - there are like five different series essentially telling the same brother-sister love story in different settings over and over.

+1 to early Jackie Collins

A book called Celebrity where in the first chapter three young men commit rape

Historical romance novels, particularly Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

The worst is Letters to the Happy Hooker, not my sisters’ fault but was at my grandparents house because my mother had multiple younger brothers

Oh my gosh yes - the Happy Hooker book! My friend's mom had it and we DEVOURED it in 5th grade.

My grandmother had The Happy Hooker on her nightstand, but it was wrapped in a paper garbage bag, like we used to put on our textbooks back in the olden days. I just had to see what was under there! It was quite enlightening.

How's about a butterfly flick?

I read In Cold Blood when I was about 12 and it totally freaked me out. I never think books are inappropriate but it definitely scared the crap out of me.