This article got me wondering about how many of my pals here also read Forever until it was completely dog-eared! I remember knowing the "important" pages by heart, and showing them to my friends! :lol: I read the Flowers series, but not until I was older!! They did captivate me though!

Scarlet Letters

I don't read "dirty" books. :whistle:

Hey why are you happy? :)

I was wondering the same thing.. Why are you happy?

Okay, okay I read the Flowers in the Attic in junior high. :P Is Forever the book where the guy names his penis? If so I did read it. :blush: Junior high also.

Well, I am getting "Forever" from the teen box so eventually I'll check it out. When I was a little kid I remember picking up the Harlequin romances and skimming for that ONE hot scene in the book... also, in Jr. High my friends & I were reading Gerald's Game during chemistry class. :lol:

Rhonda, I can't believe you have not read Forever. :o

And why am I happy?
I am happy because Greg is getting a divorce and moving back to San Diego (from New Zealand)!! :bananadance: Kel is a happy camper!

Me neither after everything I've heard about it!

Greg is whom? :unsure:

Long story!

:lol: This cracks me up. I remember reading the Clan of the Cave Bear series in highschool, after my parents read them! They knew exactly what I was reading! I also read Forever and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret over and over and over. My parents had a copy of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex* that my sister found in her pre-teen, teen years.


She passed it down to me. I kept it hidden behind my other books. I think it was the inspiration for Woody Allen's movie of the same name. As an parent, I'm pretty sure they left it around on purpose. ;)

In junior high, my friend and I found her parents' copy of The Joy of Sex. That was interesting reading. :P

Tell us more!! :whip:

My mom actually encouraged me to read her Great Literature, so I was exposed to Portnoy's Complaint and John Updike's Rabbit novels way before I was ready.

On my own, I read Forever (thought it was romantic!), Go Ask Alice (loved it and recommended it to dd -- she was repelled!) and Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (ultimately preachy).

There was another book I read in the 60's or 70's about a pregnant teen who owned Great Danes and didn't believe in spaying/neutering animals, so she kept getting abortions for the dogs. Then when she had her baby, she lost interest in the pets. (Boy, what a bad influence that book was! Anyone else remember it?)

Oh, yes, Clan of the Cave Bear. The very first book I was asked to withdraw from a school library. :blink:

ETA: EllyMae, let's hear about Greg!

I remember hearing about Forever and about the penis named Ralph but I never read it for myself. That kind of contraband would have sent shock waves through my grammer school and there was no way in hell one of the local librarians would have let us walk out of the library with that in tow. Regular Judy Blume books were about as racy as I got. (Didn't Deanie let someone feel her up? Or was that Tiger Eyes?)

I can't really remember reading too many "dirty" books as a kid. I know my best friend's older sister used to keep some kind of Victorian erotica books under her bed. My friend would read them but I just got bored. Don't tell anyone, but I was a bit of a prude back then - and still am now. :o I just don't care for the sex scenes.

I do think this is an odd one though. I went to all girls catholic school (probably explains the prudiness.) For my senior honors English class we had to come up with our own reading list for the year. We had to ask a certain number of adults what their three favorite books to recommend were and from there we made our lists. Thinking she'd have some real insight I asked a librarian at the public library. Her recommendation? The Mayflower Madam. Granted, I enjoyed the hell out of that book but if a pudgy, little dork of a girl came up to me in her plaid school uniform and asked for a book recommendation for a school project I am not sure a book about a madam would have been my first choice.

Yes, I sure did read Forever! Then I loaned it to the girl up the street who definitely did not read, and she proceeded to lock herself in her room and read it in a single day! :lol: She said that was the first novel she'd ever really read!

Jean Auel was an eye-opener for me too. But the biggest eye-opener was that my baby sister had Valley of the Horses in her room and read it before I did! (She would have been initially attracted by the use of the word "horse" in the title. :rolleyes: ) That was the first one we read. Oh my!

I've been sneaking peeks at naughty reads for ages. There was a time period when I was 11 or so when I just couldn't find any good books to read. Everything for my age group was too babyish, and it seemed like from there you had to jump to very adult novels and only adult populated books seemed so dull. Luckily soon after that I found fantasy novels (and dragons! :wub: :lol: ), but I was going through books much faster than I was finding replacements. One book-bereft day a couple years later I picked the romance novel my mom had on her bedside table...and then snuck back again and again until I finished it! That was when historical romances were the thing (kinda like paranormals are now), and even came with conveniently aged 17 heriones. And naughty parts. Perfect! :lol:

I read Lady Chatterly's Lover in 12th grade because I wanted to see what all the hype was. I didn't find it particularly sexy but I definitely got why people wanted it banned. lol

I do remember reading some sex-filled books at a young age, I just don't remember what any of them were! My cousin used to read a lot of Harlequin romances and I used to flip through to find the sex scenes - - that was easily 6th grade.

My boss gave me Clan of the Cave Bear and while I didn't really notice the sex scenes in that one, I was definitely skeeved out when he gave me Valley of the Horses. I still grimace when I think of Jondalar. That book scarred me.

Ahh the memories! I read Forever when I was about 13 I think, and I have NO IDEA how I found out about it. I did pass it onto my best mate who was also a book lover like myself. We were really into Sweet Valley Hight and Sweet Dream books - all about the romance at that stage .. haha!! But now, hate the romance and want the action scenes :whip: lol

I haven't read any of the books discussed in this thread. Okay, I read a chapter or two of Lady Chatterly's Lover but stopped from boredom.

When I was about 13 I stumbled across a Xaviera Hollander book my parents had lying around...I think it scarred me for life. :o :lol:

I remember that book. My parents had a copy of it and I would sneak read it when the went out. :lol: I can't recall the first romance book I read but it was when I was around 13 or 14. One of those bodice ripper type books.

My step-sis and I read those horrible "True Love" magazines until my dad found them and took them away accompanied by a sstern lacture. Then I moved on to Books like Carrie, The Boston Strangler and In Cold Blood. He didn't read much then, and thought I was reading nice ordinary books. I must have been 12 or 13.


I found Dad's nasty magazines about that age too. I thought men looked funny naked. Still do. :lol:

I read alot of those mags too. I think they were called "True Story" or something like that. My cousin who was five years older than me read to me from All you ever wanted to know about sex, but was afraid to ask. I must have been about 10 or 11 because she got married when she was 16 and I think she was preparing for that while she was reading to me.

I remember reading Lace when I was about 14 or so - can still remember the scene with the goldfish :o

Lace? Never heard of it. What's this about a goldfish? :o

Ewwww...thanks for reminding me! :lol: Yeah, I read that book at FAR too young an age...

cheesy, I'm not sure you wanna know... :blink:

My mom never censored anything I read, which was very effective in making me censor what I read. She just told me "I trust you to use your own judgement".

I did read the Jean M Auel books though, and remember earnestly telling my mom "but I just skim through the sex parts". Yeah, right! :lol: :rolleyes:

Now I'm thinking I need to go find a copy of Forever, and I must say I'm curious about the goldfish...

I went to the library book sale yesterday (everything in a bag for $3) and what do I find? Forever by Judy Blume..... :whistle:

If I EVER get to read anything other than textbooks again, I'll read it and have it to pass along....to all you other innocents who haven't read it yet, like me. I think I might have been married already when this came out!

Seriously, what's the deal with the goldfish? Can someone spoiler it out or something?

Lace was written by Shirley Conran. This particular scene involved a goldfish being, erm, inserted somewhere! I'll leave your imagination to figure it out :whistle: :blush:

I can see how that might be traumatizing! :blink:

I knew I wasn't going to be thrilled for the poor fishy.... :rolleyes:

I've heard of eating fish raw but whoa that's a whole new level. :blink: :lol: