Ever Read a Forbidden Book as a Child?

[Apogea]

I don't think I had any forbidden books as a child, so never have read any of them I was not allowed to haha

[ALynnPowers]

I don't think I had any forbidden books as a child, so never have read any of them I was not allowed to haha

Haha... awesome! Kind of same for me, at least at home! My parents didn't care what I read.
My school had rules, but I was like, "Do you really think you can stop me from reading?" And read whatever I wanted anyway.

[cdisenberg]

Funny story to start it off. I was a very precocious reader, but raised very sheltered by strict parents. The books in my father's study were off limits. This seemed totally unfair so, while I almost never disobeyed my parents, I crept in there when no one was looking and stole away with one of the forbidden fruits. I was about six years old, and it happened that the one I stole away with was Poe. I read The Telltale Heart. Scared the CRAP outta me!! I was a precocious reader, but naturally at the age of 6 didn't understand all the nuances of everything I read, so I totally didn't get that the heart beating under the floor in the story was only in the narrator's mind. To me it was a real heart, and for all I knew, it might start beating under MY floor! In fact, I was pretty sure I could hear it. I was absolutely terrified, but I couldn't turn to anyone for reassurance, because that would mean confessing that I'd gone in my Dad's study and read one of those books, so I just had to stay awake and hope it didn't get me! To this day, I'm not a fan of Poe. I guess I'm still holding a grudge.

Anyone else have any childhood experiences with "forbidden" books?

Well, I'm going to date myself here, but I can remember that in school we were going to read the Canterbury Tales, and had to have a signed permission slip from a parent! My parents were pretty strict so I signed it for them.

Years later I confessed to my mom and she told me she would have never thought of banning me from reading that book. Pretty cool, I thought.

[Bighuey]

When I was a teen I used to sneak those men's magazines in my room. The ones with the half-naked girls on the covers and adventure stories, mostly about young girls being rescued from a fate worse than death. Some had the pin-up of the month, girls prancing around in skimpy bikinis, etc. Pretty tame nowdays, but great stuff back then for a 16 year kid to slobber over and have nasty fantasies about.

[patrickt]

Many years ago my mother joined a group of other mothers who were going to stamp out smut in school libraries. She left the list of books they were out to ban where I could find it and I started checking out the books. I never did discover why the books needed to be banned but I did discover that reading books you want to read, for whatever reason, was a lot more enjoyable than reading books you're forced to read. I was off and running with Edgar Rice Burroughs and Martin and Osa Johnson.

[ylisa7]

No books were forbidden to me but I still stuck with "mostly" age appropriate books. I read some that were for much older adults that had some heavy duty scenes. I did find one of my mother's books one time and read it. It was an x rated novel. It was interesting even tough I didn't understand all of it, lol, but I still remember a certain scene and that was about 35 years ago.

I do know a Cheech and Chong album was kind of off limits. I never did listen to it….but I did see the movies later on. No biggie.

Funny….I drove before I was allowed to legally, got to go to casino's underage, watched anything on TV or at movies but yet I wasn't allowed to wear make up or date and I didn't drink or do drugs. Odd but fun childhood:)

[Flu2reader]

its funny when i started reading a ton on my own (8-10) i would read any and everything : gone with the wind, stephen king, anne rice, poe, jean auel etc and my parents never minded because it would be mixed into your wizard of oz and little house on the praire books. and my mom in particular liked to go back and forth between adult and childrens books herself. granted i might not have understood everything in the books but i am glad i read them and get to reread them now as an adult in a completely different place

[Cappy]

Yes, Valley of the Horses by Jane Auel. I was 13. It wasn't exactly banned because my parents didn't know I was reading it, but it really wasn't age appropriate. Had I been my parents I would have paid a bit more attention to what I was reading.

[cyndiha11]

As I said on another post, Flowers in the Attic when I was about 10. I also read a lot of Steven King at that age, but my parents were just impressed that I could read so fast, so they didn't care what I read.

Oh my goodness, Flowers in the Attic when you were 10. This particular book didn't happen for me until much later in age, but I also read a lot of Stephen King at a younger age. My brother, who is four years older, was reading it at the time and I stole-borrowed them. I don't know if my Mother knew I was reading it, but i'm sure she did and just let it go.

[craftshley]

My parents never told me not to read certain books. All books were fair game. One time, in fifth grade, my teacher started to read Harry Potter to us in class, which was technically banned by the school. We were trusted not to tell anyone, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

[LSWS07]

My parents were strict about what I could read, but terrible enforcers. I would either sneak in forbidden books or tell them I was reading something innocent, while in reality I was almost always reading books for adults. I read everything from Poe to King, Nora Roberts to Danielle Steele, David Balducci to James Patterson, before high school.

[SharisseEM]

I wouldn't call it a forbidden book per se but it wasn't age appropriate. When I was still really young, I think I was thirteen or fourteen, I came upon this book called 'Double Fantasy'. Oh yeah, that book was definitely not age appropriate especially growing up in a conservative country. Then I read Flowers in the Attic. It was a ratty old book I'd found in some storage boxes while moving. The cover made it seem like a horror novel buuuuut apparently not.

[rssllue]

I read one when I thought I was old enough as a teen, that I was most assuredly not old enough to read. I definitely should have honored my parents more with that one.

[LivreAmour217]

When I was in high school, I would occasionally buy a romance novel with my allowance and hide it from my parents. Romance novels were not allowed in my household, although horror novels were completely okay (and often borrowed from my mom). Go figure! In hindsight, though, I don't think those romance novels did me any good. Oh, well

[Stormie Dyson]

I don't think any books were really forbidden, but I was an early reader and have a similar story. When I was about 4-5, I read a story in which King Arthur dies. His sword is thrown into the lake; a hand appears, raises the sword and disappears. The story described blood bubbling from King Arthur's mouth as he died. After that, every time I lost one of my baby teeth, I went hysterical. It bled, ergo I must be dying. I didn't tell my parents why I was so terrified until much later (in my 20s).

Oh, there were a couple of books in my parents' room - one was a compendium of women's health Q&A; the other was "The Joy of ..." adult relationships. I learned a lot - including how to quickly hide those books and be reading something innocuous when I heard Mom on the stairs!