# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/21 "2010-02-02T18:38:37Z")
Don Quixote in 3rd grade. My parents were of the belief that if I understood the words and looked up the ones I didn’t know, then I could understand the book. Books don’t work that way. I got some of it, but a lot simply went over my head (it didn’t help that my dad had _not_ read the book, only seen the musical and kept saying “have you gotten to the part where \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_” about things that do not happen in the actual book). But even without that distraction, there are themes and ideas that are simply over the head of your average 8-year-old. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/22 "2010-02-02T18:39:13Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > 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! Oh man, you too? Isn’t that the book where a woman is getting raped every night by her husband, who tears off her nightgown, so she starts buying increasingly heavier and better-constructed nightgowns? I have only the vaguest recollection. I remember asking my mom what a “cat o’ nine tails” was and having her ask me what in the world I was reading. (I lied.) I think I was like 8 years old. ---
**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, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/23 "2010-02-02T18:40:42Z")
Speaking of **MsWhatsit** , I first read Wrinkle in Time young and think a lot of it kind of went over my head. Liked it a couple years on, though. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/24 "2010-02-02T18:40:56Z")
Henry Miller’s _Tropic of Cancer_; _Tropic of Capricorn_; and _The Rosy Crucifixion: Sexus, Plexus, Nexus_. Fourteen years old. Quite an eye-opener, those. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/25 "2010-02-02T18:44:35Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > 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. Robbins’ entire _oeuvre_ is a crude mindfuck. You either process it as high camp, or you come out ripped and bleeding. I got hold of _Gravity’s Rainbow_ at eight. 95% of it made no sense; the remaining 5% was enough to fuck me up for life. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/26 "2010-02-02T18:47:08Z")
I read both **The Godfather** and **Jaws** when I was still a lad of tender years. The sexual passages were…eye-opening. ---
**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, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/27 "2010-02-02T18:55:40Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Oh man, you too? Isn’t that the book where a woman is getting raped every night by her husband, who tears off her nightgown, so she starts buying increasingly heavier and better-constructed nightgowns? I have only the vaguest recollection. I remember asking my mom what a “cat o’ nine tails” was and having her ask me what in the world I was reading. (I lied.) I think I was like 8 years old. That’s the one! Aiiieeee! ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/28 "2010-02-02T19:00:42Z")
I was reading everything I could find, always, but there was just ONE book that…well… I read Peter Straub’s “Shadowlands” in 6th grade. As far as I remember, it’s very different from any of his other stuff. Anyway, it must have been near the end of the school year, because I have very clear memories of finishing it, then burying it at the bottom of my locker…literally putting everything I could on top of it…and when school let out for summer, I left it there on purpose so the janitors would burn it. I remember thinking I shouldn’t just throw it away, cause somebody else might pick it up and read it. \ Read it again a few years later, and it’s still just as fascinating and freaky, though I am less likely to symbolically bury the book. 😛 I really wish he wrote more even close to that, but I haven’t found anything like it. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/29 "2010-02-02T19:02:21Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I got hold of _Gravity’s Rainbow_ at eight. 95% of it made no sense; the remaining 5% was enough to fuck me up for life. I’ve heard many adults process it the same way. 😛 As to The Godfather, I don’t recall the bridesmaid with the size problem, but the passage about the bride’s ‘insides feeling like spaghetti for a week’ left an odd impression for a while… ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/30 "2010-02-02T19:05:48Z")
I went to a Catholic school, and they did a pretty good job policing the library for questionable content (that’s what public libraries are for), but they did overlook a book called _For Those About To Die_ about the Roman gladiators. They missed it because it was a weird combination of historical textbook and near porno-lit. If you just skimmed it, you might have found one of the history textbook passages and thought it was OK. Large swathes of were lurid details of the goings on at a games. Probably relatively tame now, compared to other things, but still not ideal material for a 5th grader. I would bet the “historical” part of it is now largely discredited as well, since it seemed to be impossibly detailed regarding conversations, names, and other details. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/31 "2010-02-02T19:06:42Z")
My grandmother had _Clan of the Cave Bear_ and _The Valley of Horses_ by Jane Auel, I’d say I had figured out where they were and started reading them on the sly at about 12 or so. Of course, by the time I had read them for real, I had already read the sex scenes LOL. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/32 "2010-02-02T19:11:09Z")
I first read _The Lord of the Rings_ when I was 10 (after being taken to see the Bakshi film version in 1978). Much of it went over my head–I did better when I read it for the second time when I was 12. I read my Mom’s copy of _The Clan of the Cave Bear_ when I was 11 years old. I like the premise of the book, but the graphic sexual descriptions were way too much for me at that age. The sequel, _The Valley of Horses_, was worse. ETA: I see I’m not the only one who mentioned _The Clan of the Cave Bear_. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/33 "2010-02-02T19:12:24Z")
My mother was a huge fan of Ed McBain, and I’m sure the first adult book I read was one of his. I was probably around eight. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/34 "2010-02-02T19:16:39Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I read “The Harrad Experiment” in fourth grade. Hey, someone else remembers that. It wasn’t that interesting to me. I don’t think I quite got the point. No, my trauma comes from something much more true to life. Lord of the Flies. Third or fourth grade. My mom bought it for me, because it was educational. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/35 "2010-02-02T19:17:28Z")
I read The Hobbit in 6th grade. I didn’t really have much books before then so the teacher just gave me a random book from his desk. This book singlehandedly stoked my love of reading. I know a lot of people will say that The Hobbit is a children’s book, but until then the hardest thing I really read was Dr. Seuss. This was a huge step up for me. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/36 "2010-02-02T19:29:35Z")
Well, I started reading _The Hobbit_ and the Tarzan books in the first grade, but that does not seem to be the direction the thread is going. I read the _Clan of the Cave Bear_ at 11. My mother did not want me to read the _Valley of Horses_ or the _Mammoth Hunters_, but I “borrowed” them and read the good parts anyway. Of course those became irrelevant when I found a copy of _Delta of Venus_ by Anais Nin the next year. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/37 "2010-02-02T19:43:10Z")
My grandfather was a James Bond fan, so I read all of those (the Ian Fleming originals) at an early age. And I used to read all the science fiction and fantasy books I could find. I picked up the John Norman Gor books because I figured they would be like John Carter of Mars. I found they were only average as SF pulps and wasn’t really interested in Norman’s sub/dom fetish. The first book I can remember reading for the sex scenes was a book called _The Millionaires_ by Herbert Kastle. It was a heist thriller about a gang that robbed a millionaires’ resort and it had some pretty hardcore sex scenes in it. ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/38 "2010-02-02T19:43:18Z")
I remember some of us passing around an increasingly sweat-stained and dog-eared copy of The Insiders by Rosemary Rogers. That must have been around the 6th or 7th grade. Today I remember none of it except endless, wall-to-wall sex. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/39 "2010-02-02T19:52:57Z")
> [@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. Your dad was so right. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409/40 "2010-02-02T19:53:13Z")
Similarly, the book that went around when I was in ninth grade was called “My First 500.” A total porn novel. The main character assigned numbers to the men she had sex with and letters to the women. By the time I got the book, it had been broken in half. Probably the main character was too, by that time. 😛 500? Mon dieu! I read _Roots_ in the sixth grade and loved it (that’s when the miniseries was aired). I was a little astonished, however, by the vivid and lengthy description of the initial rape of Kizzy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-too-young-to-read-it-but-you-read-it-anyway/527409.md?page=3)