Ever Read a Forbidden Book as a Child?

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catzkc
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Re: Ever Read a Forbidden Book as a Child?

Post by catzkc »

My parents never paid any attention to what I read. As long as I was reading, that was fine with them! So I had free reign with that. Now - as far as what TV/Movies I watched - that's a completely different story! Little did they know network primetime couldn't come even close to some of the stuff I was reading!
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Post by Anacoana »

Oh yes, I remember in school being told that I shouldn't read books by Terry Pratchett because "children should learn and not think" (a word for word quote I'm sorry to say). Other forbidden books were Lolita, which I read at eleven and didn't fully understand but thought was great, and a book whose name I can't recall but taught me everything about sex an eight year old could ever not want to know.
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Post by ALynnPowers »

I once took a Children's Literature class, where we read the book "Forever" by Judy Blume, and I was surprised to see that this book was once forbidden for many of the older students in my class when they were younger, because of the young sexual content. But they would all sneak it and pass it around anyway. :lol:
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Post by 3chicnP »

Hahah me too! My parents wouldn't check which books I've read so sometimes I would get a book that would make their eyes pop. I was reading adult books with I was 13..
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Post by aparsons »

When I was a junior my English teacher gave me the book The Handmaid's Tale. Now I brought this thing home and my mom took one look and confiscated it. (She didn't recognize it.) She read it that night, and the next day she gave it back (and little obedient me didn't even question this), forbade me from reading it and told me to return it. She called the teacher and made him give me a different book to read. YEARS later I bought the book on amazon, because I got older and realized that what my mom did was total information denial and keeping me in ignorance, and I LOVE this book.

-- 09 Feb 2016, 18:08 --
ALynnPowers wrote:I once took a Children's Literature class, where we read the book "Forever" by Judy Blume, and I was surprised to see that this book was once forbidden for many of the older students in my class when they were younger, because of the young sexual content. But they would all sneak it and pass it around anyway. :lol:
OMG, I found this in my library and read it behind my parent's back! I had forgotten about it...lol
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Post by Mune »

My parents were very open and did not really restrict me from reading any particular books. That being said, what they would not have approved of would be an appropriate judgement for my age. I was reading Stephen King by the time I was 6, Anne Rice by the time I was 8, and so on. What I should have not been allowed to read was the books on the shelf in my friend's mom's room. I have no clue what that very straight-laced woman was like around adults, or even now, but those books were something else. One had to do with a demon with multiple female parts on her abdomen and how men met their fate when they were with her. Needless to say, I was around 8 and was dumfounded, shocked, and full of questions too worried to ask anyone about!
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Post by Mike_Lang »

There weren't really any forbidden books when I was a kid. My mom's outlook was that if I was old enough to understand what a book was about then I was probably old enough to read it if I wanted.

We often lived way out of town in the middle of nowhere and depended on the county bookmobile to bring us books every three weeks, my older sisters would take me since my mother was usually working, mom had to sign a special paper giving me permission to checkout any book I wanted from the bookmobile. About the only book I really remember my mother having some concerns about me reading was when I was 11 or 12 and tried to read Helter Skelter...she was probably right on that one.
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Post by moderntimes »

When I was a kid I was allowed to read anything I wanted. When still quite young I had already read thru the kiddie books at the library and so my folks signed for me an "adult" library card, I think when I was about 11 or so, and I was so excited to have the whole library open to me. I was reading Hemingway and Jack London while very young, then later Faulkner. No restrictions.

But a funny true story...

When I was maybe 14-15 I was in puberty and my fascination with girls and sex was of course intense. A pal at high school, I still remember his name, Jimmy Stafford, had this "sexy" paperback book, which was in fact a trashy and poorly written racy novel. I forget the book's title but I have given it the putative title which is the symbol of all trashy books of its type, "Nurses for Sale" which encompasses all the goofy bad sexy books you've ever seen.

Anyway, it was my turn to borrow Nurses for Sale and I was in my room, at my desk, reading it, paying special attention to the turned down pages where the "good stuff" was. My Dad happened past my open door, glanced in, and I shoved the book beneath my history notes.

Dad came into my room, "What are you reading?" "I'm doing my homework." "No, you were reading a book. May I see it?"

And so I reluctantly handed Dad the book, and was terrified -- Dad would rip it to shreds of course and then Jimmy Stafford would kill me. But after thumbing thru the book a big, Dad just handed the book back to me and walked out. I was of course perplexed.

About 10 min later, Dad came back into my room, carrying a big scuffed hardcover book, obviously old. He said, "This is my fault. I know you're old enough to read about sex and so on, but do us both a favor, and don't read junk, okay? Read something like this instead." And he handed me the book.

It was Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller.

Before leaving the room, Dad said, "This book does not leave your room. Do not take it to school. Do not share it with your friends." and as he was walking out, "And don't tell your Mom."
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Post by Bighuey »

I remember those old paperbacks, the ones with the half-naked girls on the covers. There wasnt really much to them, they show more in comic books nowdays. When I was a teen I read those so-called men's magazines, the ones with the B+W pin-up pics in the center. I think the titles were Male, Man's World, Raw Guts, names like that. I suppose its a learning experience.
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Post by jcox27 »

I never really had forbidden books, I pretty much read anything I could get my hands on. I was reading well above my grade. I probably read a ton of books I shouldn't have. (I started reading Romance at 12 years old, just because they were easy to get ahold of.)
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Post by moderntimes »

Mentioning comics, I would buy those awful Crypt of the Witch and other gory supernatural comics before the Comics Code came into being. Those were goofy fun.

My Dad was a lifelong fan of SF and he'd cut his teeth in the old 30s pulp era with the Amazing Tales SF mag by Campbell and others, and I was reading them voraciously as kid. I'd of course read Poe and others from my Dad's library at home. Then I discovered Lovecraft and was scared for the first time for real, reading about the Cthulhu mythos. What fun!

My kiddie pals were "bored" by books and when they were playing tag I would be reading Tales of Tarzan and so on.

But thanks to my very fine parents, no book was forbidden to me, at least by them. It was a few years later, in high school, that I had to receive their written permission to give a book report of Faulkner or Hemingway, and later, that book of banned books, Catcher in the Rye.

Likewise, rearing my 2 fine stepsons, my wife and I had signed a permission report for their school, that they could read or give reports on any book. I remember receiving a phone call from my older boy's teacher, asking if I was serious. "You mean ANY book?" she said. "Yes, any book, without restrictions of any kind." And the boys turned out fine.
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Post by Mike_Lang »

The comics that fascinated me were Weird War Tales. I love the old school pulp-type covers of the Hard Case Crime collection - thankfully, most of the stories are pretty good and they have at least a passing conection to the covers.

I remember my uncle having a collection of the old tabloid type adventure magazines like Argosy, True Detective and Mens Adventure with those covers featuring scantilly clad maidens in distress being attacked by Nazis, monsters, and the occasional space alien.
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Post by CrescentMoon »

I do remember trying to read Romeo and Juliet in elementary school. I saw the cover and really liked it so I tried reading it but of course I didn't understand a word of it.
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Post by Dyslexic-Superhero »

Surprisingly I've never been told I can't read a book. I guess if there was a book that was inappropriate for me I wasn't interested in it. I also believe books are an easier formate to digest information at a young age. It's easy for a book to not make sense to a child but there a difference between reading a murder scene and seeing one on screen.
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Post by moderntimes »

Same for me. Both my parents never censored my reading choices. At school of course there were restrictions on what we could bring to school and read as well as what books were assigned.

When I was admonished by a teacher for bringing a copy of Edgar Rice Burroughs' (creator of Tarzan) Princess of Mars, because the flashy cover art displayed a slightly scantily clad Princess under attack by a monster, I complained to my Dad. He didn't challenge the teacher but he told me that some other kids in my class were perhaps a little backward, and might be upset or confused by this, and that maybe I ought to keep that book at home.
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