Mumsnet Talk

Let me start you off with two I should not have read as a fairly young child.

My Dad used to leave his books in downstairs loo so I read Cujo - which gave me horrendous nightmares for months and a Roman era sex and slaves romp (no idea what it was called - a toga ripper!) which was very graphic and rather inappropriate to be left in the reach of children! There were also countless cold war era spy novels but they were quite exciting and educational (rubbish covers though guns and blood stains and shapely legs + high heels!).

So no Stephen King till they are over at least 12. No literary porn. And I will add no Jordan Bios!

what else?

go on humour me...

at the toga ripper book!

So was I looking back on it, but my Dad clearly had eclectic literary tastes I don't think he thought about any of his children reading it - my Mum clearly did not look too closely at what he left in the loo [ahem] 'library' - I would have expected her to remove it otherwise.

It hasn't done me any lasting damage though - I don't demand my dh dress up as a roman and ravage me for eg.!

I'm trying hard to think of books I wouldn't want the dc to read in the future and can't come up with any .

I loved books as a child (and still do). My parents kept all theirs under the stairs in a cupboard. When i got to a certain age, and had read all my Famous Fives a hundred times i was drawn to investigate!

God I read some hideously unsuitable stuff. Mills and Boon, Stephen King, Harold Whatsisname....

It never seemed to do me any harm. i think if you don't understand something it kind of passes over you.

ok what aboout The Da Vinci Code - I haven't read it and I will prefer dc's don't and also anything by Barbara Cartland.

I don't think I will be down the school library demanding a book burning of anything I deem unsuitable - although in these times of fuel poverty maybe alternative heat sources would be useful... I am just thinking about when my dc can read and are selecting adult as well as childrens books which choices would make me shudder.

Lady Chatterley
Anything Gilly Cooper or Jackie Collins!

those hideous flowers in teh attic books.

Thinking of the books that gave me nightmares as a child, I'm going to have to make sure we don't have any copies of James Herbert books (read The Rats when I was 8, big mistake.

Oh, and the Struelpeter stories. Not the best bedtime reading for children

Harry Potter.

Rubbish.

I read and re read Up The Junction by Nell Dunn which I loved - it had an abortion and a miscarriage,or at least the birth of a dead baby in it,which I didn't understand...however, it didn't seem to cause me any damage - I really wanted to write gritty things myself as a result

I read all my Dad's Harold Robbins books. And the Dice Man. Also a sex manual my mum thought was hidden under her underwear.
I can't say I regret any of it

-J Archer

- Jordan, Kerry Katona et al type celeb crap by ghost-writers

- 101 ways with offal

Stephen King, DH Lawrence - I have no problem at all with.

There's nothing wrong with reading trash as long as it's not the only thing you read. It's not as if reading Jilly Cooper or similar is really taking time away that would be spent reading War and Peace. If I'm in a serious book mood (rarely) then easy books don't do it for me, and vice versa.

The cherub books are a bit too gritty for my liking, but it's too late now, I only realized once I was well into reading them out loud. I gave up on censoring as I went, every time I hesitated the child would grab it from me and demand to see exactly what horror I had sanitised!!

would hate DDs to cry their eyes out over The Little Mermaid like I did. However since Charlottes Web and the death of Laura's dog in Little House on the Prairie left them cold I don't think I have much to worry about.
Other than that vague apprehension there isn't much I would prefer them not to read.

Well maybe graphic sex but there isn't much of that in the house.
I got a shock when 'cunt' suddenly popped up in Atonement though.

Sorry, can we have clarification?

Are we doing 'books you don't want your DCs ever to read in their entire lives' or 'books you don't want them to read while too young because it'll upset them'?

The End Of Alice by AM Homes.

LOL pushchair, my friend went to see Atonement with her Granddad. He loved it, talked about how he was nearly at Balham tube station etc, she was mortified.

'What's the worst word you can think of?'

Yes, Harry Potter.
I'd rather dd read 'The 120 days of Sodom' than fucking Harry Potter.

I haven't finished Atonement yet but I could add it my list of 'books not to bother with' along with The Lord of the Rings the third book and no doubt a few others.