# Books You Read Because You Heard There Were Sex Parts: A Middle School Reminiscence **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144 "2010-02-23T17:56:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/21 "2010-02-23T20:05:15Z")
Every last romance novel my mom bought. I was neck deep in Rafes, Lances, Scarletts, Jezebels, man-roots and her-sexes. Really fucked up my frame of reference when I finally did get to see a girl all bare-naked. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/22 "2010-02-23T20:09:13Z")
Ha! I read a bunch of the VC Andrews books, and a couple of the _Clan of the Cave Bear_ series. I remember my friend and I sneaking copies of her mom’s romance novels (Harlequin maybe?) into her room to read them. And I think _Shogun_ had some juicy parts, too. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/23 "2010-02-23T20:09:42Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Every last romance novel my mom bought. I was neck deep in Rafes, Lances, Scarletts, Jezebels, man-roots and her-sexes. Really fucked up my frame of reference when I finally did get to see a girl all bare-naked. This reminds me…my VERY first experience of reading sex scenes was a short story in an issue of _Cosmopolitan_ in a stack of magazines at a doctor’s office. All of the stuff you mentioned…I was something like 10 or 11. Thought I was gonna explode right then and there! I didn’t know exactly what they were talking about, but it was setting off some heavy stuff “down there”. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/24 "2010-02-23T20:09:54Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Of those read just for the sex, and while in middle school or younger: _Wifey_, _Peyton Place_, _Lady Chatterly’s Lover_, quite a number of drug-store paperback romances and my dad’s hidden stack of Playboys. _Wifey_ wasn’t written yet when I was a kid, but I did read _Peyton Place_ and _Lady Chatterly’s Lover_. Disappointing (the sex parts anyway). I scarfed down Mickey Spillane titles too, but if there was any sex, it was tepid. The covers were so promising – women leaning against a post or a wall, skirts hiked up and blouses unbottoned. Some of those books didn’t have women in them at all! ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/25 "2010-02-23T20:10:00Z")
Gulliver’s Travels. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/26 "2010-02-23T20:24:50Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > _The Godfather_. Page 26 if I recall. Ah, yes. I still have never asked my parents why they have that book. I doubt either of them has ever read it. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/27 "2010-02-23T20:31:54Z")
[Kinflicks](http://www.amazon.com/Kin-Flicks-Lisa-Alther/dp/B000NTDMGW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266956965&sr=8-3) by Lisa Alther. I found it in a box of paperbacks my mom had collected for charity, and it had a sexy cover, so I read the whole thing. It had a couple of good scenes, if I recall correctly, including some lesbian sex. As a 12 yr old I was quite fascinated. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/28 "2010-02-23T20:44:49Z")
Really?! I’m the first to answer with “**Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (but were afraid to ask)**” - back in the 70’s that book was super popular, along with Joy of Sex. I found my parents’ copy when I was 11 or so… ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/29 "2010-02-23T20:47:11Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > [Kinflicks](http://www.amazon.com/Kin-Flicks-Lisa-Alther/dp/B000NTDMGW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266956965&sr=8-3) by Lisa Alther. I found it in a box of paperbacks my mom had collected for charity, and it had a sexy cover, so I read the whole thing. It had a couple of good scenes, if I recall correctly, including some lesbian sex. As a 12 yr old I was quite fascinated. Also by Lisa Alther is _[Other Women](http://www.lisaalther.com/otherwomen.html)_, similarly chock full of sex. There are two protagonists–a straight female psychotherapist, Hannah Burke, and her lesbian patient, Caroline Kelly; they alternate viewpoint chapters; most of the sex is in the Caroline chapters. I love that book, though not for the sex; I’ve just always thought it very well-written. The parts I remember best are the therapy sessions, particularly Hannah’s sometimes-delicate, sometimes-blunt responses to Caroline’s transference-fueled attempts to get her into bed. Sadly I cannot comment on the thread subject, as I was never a child. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/30 "2010-02-23T20:47:34Z")
> [@Staver808](#): > > Since we’re walking down memory lane, not to highjack or anything, but did anyone else sit in complete darkness in the middle of the night watching scrambled cable? If you watched long enough, you’d get a brief glimpse of what was on the screen. You never knew what you were looking at since it was on the screen for a split second. Heck, you might be looking at a knee, or an elbow, but really, back then, they all looked like breasts to me. My cable provider had the Playboy channel “jammed” on our system. However, if you turned the TV to channel 2 (or 3, it’s been a while), it would come in just fine. Wonderful news to a 16 year old. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dada2fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ccd318/32.png) [@dada2fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dada2fish)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/31 "2010-02-23T20:48:34Z")
I don’t know if these were the same books that JohnT mentions but I would love to get my hands on a series of books my friends and I read and traded with each other back in the late 70’s early 80’s. The author was Anonymous and the book titles were all pronouns, Us, Them, She, Me…etc… They were pretty raunchy for a young teen. I remember one of the books was about a young girl with the most perfect pussy interchanged with chapters about the young guy with the most perfectly proportioned penis. At the end of the book when they finally meet and have sex…Oh my! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/32 "2010-02-23T20:51:29Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Really?! I’m the first to answer with “**Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (but were afraid to ask)**” - back in the 70’s that book was super popular, along with Joy of Sex. > > I found my parents’ copy when I was 11 or so… This. I also had copies of [The Hite Report](http://www.amazon.com/Hite-Report-National-Female-Sexuality/dp/1583225692/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266958236&sr=8-1). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/33 "2010-02-23T20:52:05Z")
_Looking for Mr. Goodbar._ I didn’t read the whole thing, I didn’t even know it was a book about abusive relationships. I just let the book fall open to the pages it naturally opened to, figuring they were read a lot. That worked, but it may just have been because it’s hard to find a page in that book without sex. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/34 "2010-02-23T20:54:38Z")
Grandma’s Harlequin romance novels had some dirty stuff. Then there was Papa’s porn stash… By the time I was ten, I had more answers than I had questions! Later, I babysat a couple of times for a family that had The Joy of Sex on their bookshelves. You better believe I was putting those kids to bed early. I had a hard time with the older kid, though…that little pervert had obviously been reading it too! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/35 "2010-02-23T20:54:45Z")
> [@MissSwitac](#): > > I don’t know if these were the same books that JohnT mentions but I would love to get my hands on a series of books my friends and I read and traded with each other back in the late 70’s early 80’s. > The author was Anonymous and the book titles were all pronouns, Us, Them, She, Me…etc… > They were pretty raunchy for a young teen. I remember one of the books was about a young girl with the most perfect pussy interchanged with chapters about the young guy with the most perfectly proportioned penis. > At the end of the book when they finally meet and have sex…Oh my! Yes, those. And [The Romance of Lust](http://www.amazon.com/ROMANCE-LUST-Classic-Victorian-Erotic/dp/1449910823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266958359&sr=8-1), which is the one I was thinking of in post 2 (had to look up the name). I, er, had absolutely no supervision in my reading material. Thanks Dad! (OTOH, you should’ve seen my grandmother’s reaction when she grabbed my copy of _The Book of Lists_, only to have it fall open to the chapter on sex and sexuality (Top 7 favorite positions for sexual intercourse. 20 people with malformed sex parts. Those kind of lists). My defense: “It has the 10 Commandments in it, so I thought it was OK to read!” :o ) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/36 "2010-02-23T21:01:08Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > A _bunch_ of books by somebody named “Anonymous” who wrote like they lived in Victorian times. Never figured out who that person was, either. 😉 > > Introduced me to a lot of words, like “guamahache” or something like that. > > Those wacky brits! I expect you’re referring to works like A Man With a Maid, Arabella, and Villa Rosa, all published by Blue Moon Books in the 80s. Some of those were genuine works of Victorian-era fiction; others were written by “Richard Manton,” a contemporary writer whose who was, at least in his fiction, obsessed with torture, rape, humiliation, and forcible sodomy. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/37 "2010-02-23T21:01:15Z")
> [@Staver808](#): > > Since we’re walking down memory lane, not to highjack or anything, but did anyone else sit in complete darkness in the middle of the night watching scrambled cable? If you watched long enough, you’d get a brief glimpse of what was on the screen. You never knew what you were looking at since it was on the screen for a split second. Heck, you might be looking at a knee, or an elbow, but really, back then, they all looked like breasts to me. > [@JohnT](#): > > My cable provider had the Playboy channel “jammed” on our system. However, if you turned the TV to channel 2 (or 3, it’s been a while), it would come in just fine. > > Wonderful news to a 16 year old. 😃 When I was a young teen we had a subscription TV service that would broadcast scrambled signals and we had a set-top box that was a descrambler. It would show racy movies in the middle of the night. It had a parental lock, which was literally a keyhole in the box with a key that you would turn to unlock the descrambler switch. Imagine my joy the day I discovered that the lock was easily picked with a bobby pin, and the number of times I snuck into the living room in the middle of the night to watch bad '80s softcore. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/38 "2010-02-23T21:02:24Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I expect you’re referring to works like A Man With a Maid… Yeah, read that one too. Don’t remember the others. But there were a _lot_ of them, all courtesy of Waldenbooks. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/39 "2010-02-23T21:03:51Z")
My mom was a fan of the bodice ripper variety of “historical” romance novel. I used to flip through to the good parts! ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144/40 "2010-02-23T21:36:01Z")
[The Fan Club](http://www.amazon.com/Fan-Club-Irving-Wallace/dp/0671217178) by Irving Wallace [The Happy Hooker](http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Hooker-Xaviera-Hollander/dp/B000NT9MPW/) by Xaviera Hollander [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-read-because-you-heard-there-were-sex-parts-a-middle-school-reminiscence/530144.md?page=3)