I guess I’m really dating myself but in high school The Godfather was the book of choice although I had my suspicions that interest flagged after the graphic sex scene on page 29… :dubious:
Valley of the Dolls. Pure filth then, rather tame now.
Everyone around me has been reading The Devil in the White City, which is strange because I read that two or three years ago. Also, another vote for Forever and Flowers in the Attic in elementary school. It was definitely bcause of the sex.
Not a workplace, but in my social circle it seemed like everyone was reading “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay”. Great book, by the way.
1985 - freshman year of high school. My D&D friends all discovered the Dragonlance books by Weis and Hickman. I can distinctly remember telling them that “They’re okay but you really ought to try Lord of the Rings.”
Big sex scene? You mean the rape? :eek:
We had that one and Forever by Judy Blume floating around. Some of us geekier types were also plowing through the **Thomas the Unbeliever ** series.
Every book I ever read in school instantly became the most popular book and was read by the entire class. Being the smartest, most popular, best looking and all around greatest student was rather nice.
(Being homeschooled and thus the only student helped out a lot)
My goodness, I have not read this book in 20 years, and don’t remember the plot points at all. Calling a rape a “sex scene” is definitely something I try not to do. In my mind, I remember everyone at my school marking the pages of the “dirty part” – and when I composed my post, “sex scene” looked slightly more couth than “dirty part.” I’m sorry if I offended.
Elementary School? Does that mean something else where you come from?
Fourth and fifth grade meaning elementary? Then yes. We would steal them from people’s big brothers and sisters who were in middle school. I know we read Forever in fourth, because I remember the teacher who took it from us and called our mothers. Oh, we had no idea what we were reading about, just knew it was dirty!
No frets…it may not have been a violent at gunpoint rape, but it was definitely not consensual.
In junior high, when I was in 7th or 8th grade in the mid 1970s, I remember a good number of students and teachers all reading “The Bastard” series of bicentenial historical novels.
Uglies series FTW
During the '80s, Lord of the Rings were of course popular, and there were some into Carlos Castaneda’s books too. But the more unexpected novel was Wuthering Heights, thanks to Kate Bush’s success with Hounds of Love I guess, release of her The Whole Story, and a popular girl being very into Kate Bush. I read the novel myself of course, but if I had to choose, I would go for Kate Bush’s song instead.
1976-77: Stephen King’s Carrie–even before the movie came out.
Go Ask Alice is the one I really remember making the rounds when I was a kid, and of course Tolkien.
A friend of mine finished reading it on the bus one day and handed it off to me because “I pictured the main character looking like you.” :eek:
To this day I am unsure how to take that.
Jaws by Peter Benchley
I was in the sixth grade. Everyone wanted to read it, and the few copies around my school were accompanied by long lists of who was next in line. It was scary and gory and had gasp sex. Teachers and parents would confiscate a bodice ripper on sight, but copies of Jaws stayed in informal circulation until the books disintegrated.
On reflection, I think that’s kinda strange.
The Firm really made the rounds when it came out. It was the first John Grisham best-seller, and something new on the scene.
When I was in high school, I was surprised at the books that everyone seemed to be reading (and not for any class) – Siddhartha, Magister Ludi, and Steppenwolf. I’ve only read the first of these, and was disapointed.
Voltare’s Candida was the book that everyone was fighting for. It wasn’t that we were that high brow or taken with French satire. It was there are some very, very risque parts in it (well, risque for our 60s crowd). We also discovered 1984 and **Brave New World **for those reasons too. (hey, we were teen age boys! Women, if you are appalled at this, I’m sorry, but the male of the species has one thing on his mind and it isn’t great literature [this is especially true of the teen male].)
We even fought over the big dictionary in the school library because it had all the dirty words underlined.