What did you read that would have upset your parents had they known?

On Talbin's Club Read thread, somehow folks wandered off to discuss books that they read when they were young that described S-E-X. It reminded me of reading Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. If I think about it, I am sure there were others that I was hiding under the mattress. (Good thing my mother required that we make our own beds!) How about you?

I snagged that one too, Lisa.. from my mom. To be honest, she never cared what I read, or that I read, or for that matter where I read, as long as it was somewhere else. She used to "hide" her True Story magazines under the sofa....

No dad around to care, so I had free reign.

:P

I used to babysit for neighbors that subscribed to Playgirl Magazine Don't think my mom would have liked that one!

My mom read every book we brought home. If she had problems with it she would discuss it with us and give us a complete and concise explanation of what she found wrong with the book. At least she didn't tell us we couldn't read something just because she "said so". The only book she had a real problem with was Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, but she didn't stop me from reading it.

I never interfered with my kids reading, never censored them. Now and then they would have a book that made me say hmmm... but I never stopped them. We had many lively discussions about books. still do! Most of the books they read were either mine already, or books that I had read at some point, except for a few very trashy novels that passed through.

The trashy novels were few and far between though, as they grew up going to the library every week, and having all the classics on our own shelves, and hearing them read to them... and eventually reading them on their own. These days, when all of my kids are in their 30's, it is amazing how often we read the same books. It is also a little funny when we disagree on them :)

I read more than they do, I probably read as much in a year as all four of them combined, but then.. they have much more interesting and busy lives than I do. My youngest son comes closest to being a voracious reader...

I also read Valley of the Dolls which my parents would not have approved of. I read Hotel by Arthur Hailey when I was about 11 years old. It was a real eye-opener!

edited for touchstone

I read that one too..
as far as I remember, I never took one childs book out of the local library...
no one seemed to are, so I must have chosen well, or they really didn't care. I did read through my elementary and high school library too, though.

I forgot about Hotel. I don't remember it being as gritty as Valley of the Dolls. Those were books my parents had in the house. They must have been like me--leaving a lot of books laying around and not knowing where they were.

As to the public library, at that time there was a section for "young people" at the Chicago Library Branch, and we had special library cards based on age. If the card would not let you have a book, you did not get the book. Since I always rode my bike with the basket big enough to carry the full limit of books we were allowed to check out, there was no adult to check out a book for me if the librarian would not let me do it.

The only book I got into trouble with the local public library for was a child's book on fetal development with a main character named Egbert. I was 9, my mother was pregant. My mom overruled the library.

The only book I got into trouble with my Mom about was one my grandfather had given me. It was about ballerinas, I assume it was some kind of tacky-tasteless and she gave it away, never considering to hold onto it for me just because of who gave it me. He had intended well. Boo. Hissss.

Dad wasn't a reader and thought reading anything except the newspaper was a waste of time.

Mom never curtailed my reading, though she sometimes made acid comments about "that trash," like the National Lampoon subscription in the early 70s.

Actually, the mag had gone downhill by that time, but I wouldn't admit it.

She did ban TV shows she thought were stupid. We were not allowed to watch Bigtime Wrestling, the Billy Graham Crusade, horror movies, soap operas, "Divorce Court," "Petticoat Junction," "Green Acres" or "The Honeymooners" reruns, the latter because there was too much bickering (which always made my brother and me laugh b/c my folks bickered, and still bicker, endlessly).

She was in the hospital for two weeks when I was 12, and Dad gave us free reign of the TV. We had pancakes and sausages every night and pigged out on mindless TV afterwards.

It was great!

I don't remember my parents paying much attention to what I read. However, I'm sure my mom at least would have been upset had she known about the porn my brother kept hidden in his room and which I most certainly enjoyed as a young fellow. Then again, maybe she did know about it and just ignored it.

Not my parents, but my grandmother caught me reading Light in August.

"How dare you read that evil man who said those nasty things about us."

My grandmother was raised in Starkeville, Mississippi, and graduated from Mississippi A&M around 1906, which may help classify "us". I never saw her mad about anything else, and I haven't met anybody else who remembers her being mad. But Faulkner did it.

I've reflected over the years how very little attention my parents paid to what I was reading. I openly read Happy Hooker by Xaviera Hollander--my mom's copy of the book. I also read my mom's copies of Valley of the Dolls, Coffee, Tea, or Me, and Hotel. I read most of Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, but I think I was not quite as open about it--reading most of it at church camp, of all places! Most of all, I read anything I could! The bookmobile only came once a month, so when the books I'd checked out were all read, I'd look at what Mom had.

well, this was inadvertent as my mom urged us kids to read one flew over the cuckoo's nest and all 3 of us (i was the eldest) read it in HS / jr. high. But then, later, when her boys, esp., looked like hippies when we went off to college, she blamed OFOtCN (in part) for our falling from the straight and narrow. That's what you get for encouraging reading. Really my folks assumed that if they had the book, we could read it. So relatively odd highschool readings ensued: the alexandria quartet; dance to the music of time sequence; and LOTS of mysteries (more normal, i'd guess).

In my 7th grade honors English class, the seven students (all girls) took turns reading Valley of the Dolls to each other, in-between work on our independent Chaucer/Canterbury Tales projects. After check-in with the librarian, we could either stay in the library or take advantage of the many empty basement classrooms (which, of course, we chose as much as possible and is where we read the book), so we weren't discovered. The book in question was taken from the bedside stack of a local minister's wife by her daughter, who was one of the seven readers. I learned much in English class that year. I imagine, though, that my parents would have been much more upset about the freedom we were allowed in moving about the old three-story jr. high, unsupervised, than in the reading of the book.

In my day I read (on sly) in Jr. high school Das Capital and The Communist manifesto by Karl Mark. I had purchase them in the 'Revalutionists Book Store' in Manhattan. What can I say it was the 60's.

>16 usnmm2:: On the heels of McCarthy and with our attitude toward Communism in the 60s, that would probably have been worse than reading about sex! We were fighting in Vietnam, remember, based upon the "domino theory" that if one country in the area fell to communism the rest of the world would follow.

17: LisaCurcio,
I always was (and still am) a bit of a radical, when it came to book censoring.
I remember a very uncomforatable time while I was in the Navy and reading (openly) The quotations of Chairman Mao or better know as "The Little Red Book". I still think that is why I didn't make 2nd class (e-5) my first time around. But no regrets, would have read it again just to prove a point.

I think even my fairly liberal parents might have gulped a bit if they'd known about Candy (at age 14). While babysitting for neighbours, I also started reading Bonnie and Clyde (though I don't remember whose version it was) around the same time. I don't think my parents would have objected but the neighbours noticed what I was reading and the next week it had disappeared from the bookshelf. My own kids were never censored; it was important to me to have them enjoy reading and I'd rather they'd read porn than nothing at all.

back then we jr. hs boys read Bond avidly - hard to believe that those books seemed "sexy" - i'm sure my parents would've been disappointed in my taste rather than the fact of my reading 'em.

#16 - both are classics, seriously. Marx, like everyone else, wasn't much of a prophet, but he was an amazingly astute social analyst. Whether talking about the position of women in 19th C capitalist society or the whole concept of alienation from work, he was original, brilliant and often dead on the money.

"Determinism" whether historical, geographical, religious, political doesn't work. I suspect one reason it was SO popular among 19th C social thinkers in general was that it was viewed as bringing a system analogous to Newtonian physics to human affairs.

Never read the "little red book" though.

I used to sneak into my Dad's room when I could and read from Portnoy's Complaint. One day, I got tired of sneaking and just asked my Dad if I could read it. He said no, and then it disappeared from it's hiding place. I never did finish it. I supposed I'm old enough to do that now...

I read Portnoy's Complaint but darned if I can remember where I got it. I vaguely recollect reading it in the bathroom.

I do remember Dad wouldn't let me read The Egyptian after we saw the movie on Saturday Night at the Movies, but I found it somewhere in the house and read it anyway.

Under the mattress was the 1964 issue of Playboy that contained the interview with the Beatles, and the sleazy/semi-porno novel that had been confiscated from a cousin of my friend Henrietta's, and then swiped by Henrietta from her dad's dresser drawer and passed around to the rest of us.

I went through all the Bond novels in the seventh grade, with a little John Le Carré thrown in. Dad knew about the spy novels, but not that I had found all the Playboys and nudist magazines down in the basement years before.

Booksloth, my kids were not censored either...
and they made some really good choices! They are all still
readers today so I feel like I made a good choice.

Good for you, mckait. I think this thread illustrates that kids will find the 'naughty stuff' whether we let them or not and it probably makes a far bigger impression on them than if it had been freely available - after all, everyone seems to remember those books pretty vividly. In my opinion, if they're old enough to read it, then they're old enough to read it - anything they don't understand will go over their heads anyway. I will add to that that if I'd caught them reading something I heartily disapproved of (though that would have been more likely racism, violence, sexism or general intolerance than sex, I would have used the discovery as a jumping off point for a discussion of the issues - after all, I read a lot of stuff I probably shouldln't approve of either but I don't think you have to agree with a book to enjoy it. In fact, how does anyone learn to argue with the issues if they just aren't aware that these things go on? I feel really strongly about this - you might have noticed!) My two have certainly grown into normal, broad-minded, tolerant adults so something went right (though that may have just been luck!)

Booksloth, I agree with every word you said....

and yes.. something went right, whatever it was. I do take some credit, but I suspect we had a touch of luck involved too :)

I agree with both of you. I had the same experiences with my kids. I used to quote a line from Hair to my boys all the time: "Kids, be free. Be whoever you are, do whatever you want, just so long as you don't hurt anybody." They used to roll their eyes, but they stopped when one of their heavy metal (I think) groups used that same line in one of their songs. Now I hear my son saying it to his kids!

I take a LOT of the credit for my boys, but I am fully aware that there was more than a touch of luck involved!

My parents never censored my reading and quite truthfully, I think I was clueless. I read some of Portnoy's Complaint, which was on our bookshelf in plain site, but put it down because I didn't understand it. Oddly enough, it was the check-out lady at the drug store who yelled at me for buying Love Story and my aunt who thought I shouldn't be reading Passions of the Mind. I never did figure out why. I led a pretty sheltered life, I guess.

The only one I remember my mom objecting to was, ironically, Siamese Harem Life, by Anna H. Leonowens, which I bought because of The King and I. Really, did she think that a respectable Victorian governess was going to write something steamy? It was a pretty dull book!

I read so many of these books mentioned. I was reading the Bond novels when I was eight or nine, and remember not understanding some of the scenes, what with Bond dropping his swim trunks and dragging some damsel into the cabana.

My mother took two books away from me: Valley of the Dolls and Rosemary's Baby. I got them back and finished them, though, with the help of my older brother.

I'm pretty sure I read Hotel in the Reader's Digest Condensed Books version, so maybe the racier stuff was cut out.

Read Playboy at the house where I babysat (they were under the bed!).

Despite all this, I remained a pretty sheltered and naive girl until college.

oh..i was FAR more experienced in reading than in "life." thru high school. Many of my friends were far more active in virtually every area of experimentation than i. Embarassingly so, as a good girl friend told me later on that she had been on the pill in hs and had done virtually everything but hit me over the head. Might have set at least a school record, if not a district record, for cluelessness in the mid 60s.

The "HOT" book traveling around my friends in high school (70, 71) was The Group. Our high school library had 1 copy. It stayed in the locker of whoever had it checked out -- no one took it home, read it in study hall! LOL!!!

I could be wrong about this, but page 74 (or 94) was the first sex part??????

40 years later I remember that, but can't remember what I had for breakfast or where I put my car keys....go figure.

My parents weren't paying much attention to my reading habits, but I recall that a few of us passed around a copy of The Naked Ape at school to ponder the sexy parts. We had great fun watching the facial expressions on one classmate as she blushingly perused what she had thought would be a 'science' book. We were easily entertained...

Everything! Including their books that they thought I was too young to understand or be interested in. But especially sci-fi and fantasy that they would never read and thought must be subversive or something.

My parents were avid readers, but never had anything around that they would have forbidden me--just warned me that I wouldn't understand it. I did get hold of my sister's copy of The Harrad Experiment, and I'm sure mom would not have approved! But I was about 14 and didn't like it anyway. I probably read a few things before that that just went completely over my head.

The only censorship I recall was from librarians. When I was about 8 or 10, I could walk to a high school library that was open during the summer. I kept asking for Gulliver's Travels, but it was always "out". (I had seen a cartoon version.) It was years before I realized that it was probably the same woman each time and she just lied about it. I'm sure she meant well, but Why not just give it to me? At that age, I would have quickly lost interest if I had tried to read it. I still remember being frustrated all summer that I couldn't get it. My mom probably didn't realize what was going on--she would have told the woman to let me figure out for myself that I didn't understand it.

Another librarian pointed out that I had already checked out a book once before. I think she was quite puzzled when I told her that I knew that and wanted it again anyway, LOL.

After college, I heard a librarian refusing to let a girl take out a Judy Blume book without her mom's permission. At least that was more honest, and she would be given the book with permission. The same librarians would sometimes make you feel guilty about late books, but were also sweet and grateful when you opened everything so that checkout/checkin was easy.

All that being said, I love the librarians at my current county library. Some of them are sterotypical, but mostly about closing time--and who can blame them? If they notice a small late fine, they ask if you want to pay it now or next time. Can you tell some things haven't changed? ;-) Many of them are interested in what you're reading and will chat about them if there is no line behind you. I would have a much, much, smaller reading list without the library.

>34 littleshell:--I love the librarians at my current county library.

This is off the topic some, but I couldn't help but chime in with a great big "I second that!" with regard to the public library. My husband and I go nearly every week. I would be lost without them!

My mother knew that I liked science fiction so for Christmas in 1973 she bought me a cheap boxed set of Vonnegut paperbacks, including Welcome to the Monkey House. I figured out pretty quickly that she knew nothing about this work with the titular short story which refers to crazed monkeys in captivity masturbating in public and "ethical birth control pills" that deaden all sensation below the waist making procreation possible but without pleasure.

I seriously considered hiding that book under my bed, but then remembered that neither of my parents were readers and would never pick up any of the things they got me.

For the record, the other books in the set were The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater . My mom was inadvertently cool!

Slaughterhouse Five was the first Vonnegut book I read. I checked it out from the school library and was SHOCKED they had such books in the school library. I subsequently read all of the Vonnegut books you listed--with no comment from my folks. My dad would have reacted, but like your folks, he was not a reader. My mom was, and apparently did not believe in censoring my reading since she let me read anything.

when i was 13, my parents had gone out for the day. my older brother by a year decided to show me dad's hidden playboy collection, which of course i already had intimate knowledge of.

so, when he pulled the penny collection box out and drew the magazines out from the floor of dad's closet, i pretend my amazement.

we were looking through the mags when i said, as if in awe, "wow!!!! ray Bradberry! LeNNY BRUCE!!!!!!"

he knew right then i was hopeless.

At school there was a well worn copy of The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins which was bandied around. Older pupils would 'dare' younger ones to read certain passages and then hoot with laughter at their blushes.

My mother, who had been widowed young, never read a book in her life. Anything that was in print was considered worthy and a good thing, so censorship didn't exist. She would have been horrified if she had ever looked at her 12 year old's reading material. I am more concerned about my 17 year old's devotion to the 'Twilight' series - but perhaps she will move on, at least she is reading something.

Welcome AuntPetunia!

We have an introduce yourself thread in this group somewhere, if you would like to learn more about us and tell us about you :)

And welcome again! I remember The Carpetbaggers doing the rounds at school too, and The Betsy by the same author!

Also The Adventurers and 79 Park Avenue--I read pretty widely of the Robbins' oeuvre!

I was an early starter with reading, as both my parents loved books and the shelves were always well-stocked. No book was ever forbidden, rather my Mum equipped me with a large Dictionary for any words I didn't understand. The only time she got worried was when, at age 8, I attempted to read The Ka of Gifford Hillary by Dennis Wheately and she had to try and explain what a Ka was. Anyway, the picture of a ghost in a cemetery on the frontcover was COOL!

Summer of '42 - it got passed around my class in high school, but it was my sister's copy I had pilfered.

Oh and speaking of Harold Robbins reminded me of Sidney Sheldon's Other Side of Midnight and then also Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, but I waited until college to read them. :)

That reminds me of The Sensuous Woman by J. I read that when I was about 15 or so, but I'm pretty sure my parents had no idea.

I can't complain about any sort of censorship and it was actually my mum who passed on all the Harold Robbins novels to me, along with anything else she happened to be reading in an effort to satisfy my neverending plea for more books!! I do remember though that she thought I might find The Well of Lonliness a rather sad story. There was some discussion at home about Portnoy's Complaint but there was never any suggestion that it should not be read. I think Puberty Blues attracted some attention with kids at school but then I think Kathy Lette still likes to "stir the pot" whenever possible.

LOL, a lot of us seem to have gotten an education while babysitting! I remember vividly reading The Happy Hooker at age 14 while babysitting. I sat for that kid 3 times, reading that book, and then I guess I didn't put it back exactly where it was, b/c the next time I babysat, it was not on the bookshelf!! I never did get to finish that book!

My mom let me read pretty much anything, and our little town librarian had very few "teen" books, so I was in the adult section fairly early, 14 or so. I tried to check out Helter Skelter and Mrs. Edgar took the book out of my hand and told me she didn't think my mother would want me to have it. Next trip, Mom checked it out for me... although I'm pretty sure she had no idea what it was about.

I'm very happy that my parents know almost nothing about books. I don't think they'd be too thrilled with Bukowski, who I happen to love. Or Leonard Cohen's "Beautiful Losers" which luckily I read at college so they didn't see the questionable cover. The title of Jeffrey Eugenides's "Middlesex" brought a couple of strange questions.

My parents both read quite a bit and had a pretty good, liberal, collection of books. I had free reign of them except for one - Up the Down Staircase. Well, of course, as soon as you tell someone they can't read something they will turn right around and figure out a way to do it, right?

Boy, I sure don't remember anything really objectionable in that. What did they think you shouldn't be exposed to?

... What Jenn said...

1.WELL OF LONLINESS
2.PSYCHOLOGY BOOKS - IE. LESBIAN AND GAY INFORMATION (STILL CONSIDERED A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITION)
3.VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
4. THE FOX
5. THE CHRISTINE JORGENSON STORY
6. GUESS WHO IS COMMING TO DINNER
7. JAMES BOND BOOKS
8.SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE
9. SEVERAL BOOKS OF HARROLD ROBBINS
10. CATCHER IN THE RYE
11. SEVERAL JAMES BOND BOOKS
12. ETC. ETC.

I was on my own at the age of 16 as my family moved to Oregon and I remained in Calif. But several of these books I read in Jr. High and prayed my step-mother never found them.

My parents never censored my reading, but they might have if they'd known everything I read! (Candy made me physically ill - the book, not the food - I don't think that I finished it.) My parents were both avid readers. My mom took me to the drive-in to see Rosemary's Baby and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Mom always read a lot of my books that I bought over the years. She told me that my aunt (her oldest sister, who also like to read) might like to read some of the books, but she'd probably cross out the "bad words" - I guess so no subsequent reader would be subjected to those words.

I think Candy was probably a warning to a lot of us that just because our parents didn't stop us reading it, that didn't mean it was a good idea. It was probably at that point that I learnt the value of self-censorship.

I remember finding The Joy of Sex hidden in my parents' room, and reading at least some of it when they were out at choir practice.

>56 BethyB: LOL!

What a trip down memory lane!
I had a regular babysitting job and read Candy in installments at their house. Also some horrid book for men about women - all I remember is the chapter explaining how to be positive a woman was a virgin.
The only book my parents took away from me was a Japanese book mostly about sex and sexual positions - don't remember the name. Otherwise, my reading wasn't censored, except that the only punishment that really worked on me was forbidding all recreational reading. But I got around that - extra credit book reports! I was a smarta** kid.

#58 I'm willing to bet that 'Japanese' one was either The Kama Sutra or The Scented Garden. I think most of our parents had a copy of one or the other secreted in a bedroom drawer!

OOOOH, my parents would never!

Yeah, that's what I thought, too! lol but yet, there was the Joy of Sex, in the bookcase headboard (backwards)

I don't know if my parents ever read it, but we had a copy of The Decameron and I would sneak it out to find racy parts when they were out.

Any of the James Bond books by Ian Fleming--I hid those under the mattress when I was a kid. Funny thing is, I have no idea where I got them. Racy, racy stuff.

Also, my dad would have come unglued if he knew I was reading Valley of the Dolls. I read that at a house where I had a babysitting job.

>63 labwriter: Me too, me too! I didn't hide the James Bond books--I think my parents either didn't know I was reading them or didn't know what was in them.

My mother took Valley of the Dolls away from me, but I got it back. I don't know if she took it before or after I used my new-found knowledge to call my sister a "whore." I knew it was bad but didn't know what it meant . . . my mother was about as furious as I ever saw her get.

How innocent we'd all be if we'd never babysat!

No kidding! Playboy and Penthouse magazines under the bed . . .

>65 Booksloth:. Yes, but our parents had no idea, right? You know, I'd forgotten all about this--hilarious. These were the very definition of "guilty pleasures." And pretty harmless, when you think about it.

I remember my mother hiding The Feminine Mystique in her underwear drawer. I found it one day and remember thinking, why is she hiding this??? And from whom? I guess from my dad. So. . . what was I doing in her underwear drawer? Heh.

ejj - you looked under the beds of the parents when you were babysitting?? Were you playing hide and seek with the kids?

I'm not sure what prompted that--maybe I was cleaning? *walks away, innocently whistling*

#10 , Yep I read the first National Lampoon and subscribed but what got "censored" was Heavy Metal Magazine which I subscribed to also its first or second year.

My very religious Grandmother, who lived with us and could not be provoked to say anything negative about a person except "she does not like some of their actions", found one of my HM's and told my Mom that she thought "I might be reading about demons". My mother mentioned this and I explained casually they were "comic books".

The issues were sporadic and seemed to never arrive at times however so I wrote the editors of National Lampoon who distributed the mag. paraphrasing one of their own articles {by Baba Rum Raisin?} in which I explained about the slow acting toxin soaked into the paper which was entering their bloodstream as they read the letter and asked when my missing issues would arrive so I could recommend an antidote.

Instead of being interviewed by the FBI for threatening letters {Nat. Lamp. needed to keep a low profile anyway and I was under 18} at Christmas I was handed a brown wrapper package by the postman who knocked at the door and asked for me. It contained the entire year of Heavy Metal in pristine condition. Nice job of slipping the zine past my mom.

Of course - I was forgetting Oz (the mag). My parents were pretty easy going about what I read but I think they might both have had palpitations if they'd ever found those.

Ooo - and the National Geographics with the stone age tribes wearing their clothing. Or not.

#70 & 71 I found some cover photos of interesting issues of National
Lampoon and Oz { never heard of Oz living here in the USA, they sure went
through a lot of lawsuits, although I am sure the Whole Earth Catalogue probably
mentioned it at some time}

1.jpg" width="322" height="450">

I seem to remember Nat. Lamp having a chart once in an issue showing how much
their newsstand readership went up when they had a seminude on the cover.

Wow - memories! I'm pretty sure I had that issue with the lips on. Probably would have been worth a fortune by now.

One time I found a paperback book at my grandparents and out of boredom began reading it. I was to young to understand much of it so I kept skipping parts but I came to a part that said something like"..... and then he entered her hot swirling vortex...." I was confused and didn't know what a vortex was but since it was swirling I thought prehaps it was another word for tornado or twister and I was trying to figure out how one could enter a tornado. Just then My dad looked in at me and asked what I was doing so I asked him what a vortex was. He came in and looked at the book I had then he laughed and told me to forget this book and go ask grandma for some cookies. So I did.

everything