# You were too young to read it, but you read it anyway **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409 "2010-02-02T17:40:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/1 "2010-02-02T17:40:59Z")
I was way too young to be reading Harold Robbins’s _Goodbye, Janette_–especially the bit where a young woman ends up hospitalized after having sex with a freakishly well-endowed man. Traumatized doesn’t even begin to cover my reaction! Now I’m 38 and I’m still too young to read that book. Yipes. What books did you read when you were, for whatever reason, too young? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/2 "2010-02-02T17:45:09Z")
I read Catcher in the Rye in 6th grade because it was a banned book and I was curious. Dad saw me reading that book, said, “Can’t you find something better to read?”. So I put it down and picked up my copy of The Stand by Stephen King. Learned every fucking curse word I know from all the Stephen King I read in 6th grade. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/3 "2010-02-02T17:46:47Z")
I remember obtaining a copy of _The Exorcist_ when I was in 4th grade or so. I enjoyed reading it, yet I knew that maybe I shouldn’t be. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/4 "2010-02-02T17:49:00Z")
When I was 11-14 I was really into science fiction. On the younger side of that time period, I found a book about a massive hurricane: _Mother of Storms_ by John Barnes. Only after I started reading did I discover there was a huge subplot about VR Porn. Hoo boy, there was a tough conversation with my mother! – Actually, my parents were really great about letting me read literally whatever I wanted to, and talking with me about it if I needed/wanted. But I was def. too young for that book! ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/5 "2010-02-02T17:50:41Z")
Yeah, I read\* The Exorcist\* when I was in fourth grade too. It made me aware of the fact that the Devil was always just below the sill outside my bedroom window. Sometimes I even saw the tips of his horns. But even when I couldn’t see them, he was obviously still there, just under the outside sill. He’s probably still there now. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/6 "2010-02-02T17:51:06Z")
Animal Farm. I guessed the ending–I mean, come on, who couldn’t see it coming? I also felt bad for the cutesy horse (Molly?) because they wouldn’t let her have her hair ribbons as they were tools of the capitalist pigs (see what I did there?). I still feel bad for her. Damn, if anything I’ve gotten more shallower and easily influenced by cute animals. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/7 "2010-02-02T17:56:51Z")
I was, umm, seven or eight when I read _Glass Inferno_ by Scortia and Robinson. One of the characters was a teenaged Puerto Rican heroin addict, and another was a gay interior decorator. Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/8 "2010-02-02T18:02:02Z")
> [@niblet\_head](#): > > I read Catcher in the Rye in 6th grade because it was a banned book and I was curious. > > Dad saw me reading that book, said, “Can’t you find something better to read?”. So I put it down and picked up my copy of The Stand by Stephen King. Learned every fucking curse word I know from all the Stephen King I read in 6th grade. Hah, that’s awesome! I never really read anything that was too ‘mature’ for me. There were some books that I first read in middle school that I didn’t really _get_ until I reread them later. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/9 "2010-02-02T18:07:57Z")
My Secret Life, the Sex Diary of a Victorian Gentleman. It was 1969 or so, I was 13 or 14, and pure as the driven snow. Wow. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/10 "2010-02-02T18:09:34Z")
Heck, pretty much everything I read as a kid. I freaked myself right the heck out reading **Night Shift** and other Stephen King stories and novels in late grade school/early middle school. I got into Tom Robbins, and all the hippie sex and drugs that entails, when I was 12 or 13. I distinctly remember reading \*\*[Freaks Amour](http://www.amazon.com/Freaks-Amour-Tom-DeHaven/dp/014008679X)\*\*in middle school, and that book probably effed me up for life. Oh, but the one that tops the list has to be R. Crumb’s [**Carload o’Comics**](http://www.amazon.com/R-Crumbs-Carload-Comics-Anthology/dp/0878164030) collection that my dad had. Whoa, buddy! Graphic sex, violence, race, political satire, sexism - or is that commentary on sexism, or both? - drugs, and just whacked out crazy shit. I read it every chance I got when I was 11 or 12. All of this was behind my parents’ backs, of course. They were pretty lenient about what I read - I could have got away with the Robbins novels, I think, if I’d wanted to discuss them with my mom first. But I had no interest in that. I just wanted to read. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/11 "2010-02-02T18:10:40Z")
My parents had this opinion that if I picked something up and it was too old for me, I’d lose interest and put it down. I don’t think that really worked out. Around 4th/5th grade, I read the _Exorcist_ and _Rosemary’s Baby_ (great rape scene for a kid). I don’t think I slept for six months. About that same time, _The Godfather_, which was mostly pretty good but has that freaky-deaky minor plot point about the bridesmaid who is too big “down there” for a normal man. For YEARS after, I had some strange misconceptions about anatomy. On the plus side, I was a dorky kid without a lot of friends. So I figured out I could increase my popularity by reading the dirty parts of adult books to the popular 5th graders on my street. It worked! Looking back, I’m amazed angry mothers weren’t calling my mom. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/12 "2010-02-02T18:12:40Z")
I read “The Harrad Experiment” in fourth grade. It was quite an eye-opener. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/13 "2010-02-02T18:16:38Z")
I read **Cat’s Cradle** when I was around 15; though the entire time I got the feeling I wasn’t supposed to be reading anything like this. I also read **Great Expectations** in 9th grade. The book is much too sophisticated for anyone that age. When I reread in my 30s, I thought “Damn, this Dickens guy was good.” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/14 "2010-02-02T18:16:50Z")
Roughly 40 of Ed McBain’s \*87th Precent \*books at age 12 (actually, that’s pretty much all I read that year). Good books, but they featured some pretty depraved stuff. What was left of my innocence was seared away a year later when I read the _Illuminatus!_ trilogy. My dad really should have kept an eye on what I was slipping from his library. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/15 "2010-02-02T18:17:20Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > About that same time, _The Godfather_, which was mostly pretty good but has that freaky-deaky minor plot point about the bridesmaid who is too big “down there” for a normal man. For YEARS after, I had some strange misconceptions about anatomy. I read that a couple years ago and it STILL freaked me out! My theory is that Mario Puzo has some serious hang ups about his micropenis. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/16 "2010-02-02T18:21:10Z")
James Michener’s _Hawaii_ isn’t exactly graphic, but I read it while still in grade school, and didn’t understand some of the sexuality depicted. Read it again when I DID know about sex and oh boy, a lot of things made sense that hadn’t before. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/17 "2010-02-02T18:26:05Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > About that same time, _The Godfather_, which was mostly pretty good but has that freaky-deaky minor plot point about the bridesmaid who is too big “down there” for a normal man. For YEARS after, I had some strange misconceptions about anatomy. It sounds like she needed to meet the guy from my book. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/18 "2010-02-02T18:26:27Z")
In the sixth grade, I got about halfway through _1984_ before I got scared and stopped. Finished it some years later. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/19 "2010-02-02T18:29:16Z")
I read [The Washington Fringe Benefit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Ray) when I was in my teens. It was making it’s way around the family and I started reading it and got hooked. My parents disagreed with each other that I should be reading it, but they didn’t make any moves to deny me this bit of forgotten Washington intrigue. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/20 "2010-02-02T18:36:23Z")
A whole bunch of Stephen King. To this day, I am traumatized and messed up to the point that I can’t even read him as an adult. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409.md?page=2)