Jilly cooper for 17 year old?

[Christinglechristmas]

Would you buy jilly cooper for a serious heavy weights reader to give her some fun or too raunchy??

Well she's over the age of consent so...

Is it your own seventeen year old? I was definitely reading them when I was seventeen.

I don't necessarily think people want or need to read lightweight books if that's what you mean. I have always read things like Jilly Cooper but my sister reads actual literature and wouldn't even slightly enjoy a Jilly cooper. People like what they like.

I like reading Tolstoy and Jilly Cooper, it is possible to like both.

And I was definitely reading it at 17.

Greatly which ones first riders order rivals.

I read my first Jilly Cooper on the beach in Ibiza aged 16 (Riders I think) was on post O level holiday with a gang of girls- this was many years ago. I chose my own books by that age and had done for at least 3/4 yrs. Loved it and since read all of the books as they came out and have spent the weekend binge watching Rivals . I did A Level English Lit and have also read many serious books too.

Maybe jacket Collins as well and Jeffrey Archer! Finished offer with Tim Wolfe bonfire of the the vanity

@mrsfollowill dd definitely chooses owning books but I'm not sure she realises such books even exist?

I don’t think that in today’s literary world that Jilly Cooper is even considered raunchy.

Oh it reminds me of my Great Auntie Fan giving me some exceptionally dirty (actually they were pornographic) books to read when I was 14. I think it started with Forever Amber and just went dirtier with each one.
About 10 years later we were laughing about them and my Mum was horrified and asked her what on earth she was doing with books like that. She said she never got any sex in real life so she had to get it from books (and apparently it didn't do me any harm) 🤣

I was reading Jackie Cooper at 14. Might explain my very misspent teen years though.. 🙈🤣

@Fizzadora well quotes! I don't think want to seem like dirty aunt fanny but I'm actually mummy's!!

If she's a heavyweight literature reader she may not want to read very lightweight books, presumably she gets satisfaction from what she already reads.
I didn't read that type of lightweight book at that age and never have done. At 17 I was reading Dickens, Thomas Hardy etc but also modern literature of the time by AS Byatt, Iris Murdoch, Fay Weldon etc.
I'm 60 and have never read any Jilly Cooper, Jackie Collins type of books, I just wouldn't enjoy them. There are so many great books to read and not enough time to read them. A friend gives me books like Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club or by Lisa Jewell, I give them straight to the charity shop as I've got so many books to be read by much better writers.

Jilly Cooper is actually a great social commentator, a latter day Anthony Trollope. Plus hilarious.

Wow the judgement here. I read very serious novels and among them are Jilly Cooper. She added gay and lesbian relationships at a time this wasn't common place, mentioned HIV and aids when they were taboo, gives an amazing breakdown on the impact of wealth and upbringing on a child's life chances- whilst highlighting the impact of private firms interventions into our school system and other serious social commentary.

Just because she is a female writer who is seen as frivolous because her books have some sex and humour in them, causing the stories to be downplayed in commentary about her work, doesn't make her less serious.

You have decided you won't like them but you have never actually tried to read her work? Or do you just judge a book by its cover...

I like reading Tolstoy and Jilly Cooper, it is possible to like both.

Well yes, I realise that.

But other people, people who aren't you, don't like both. It was the idea that the seventeen year old who enjoys a certain kind of book needs to have some fun that I was challenging. It's disapproving of the books she likes to read.

And I was definitely reading it at 17.
Me too.

As a serious 17yr old I was reading Anna Karenina & Les Miserables and would have turned my nose up at Jilly Cooper. I read her when I was older, and think she's great!

@FionaJT she read those at 15 😱 and more count of monte cristo, war and peace.

It's more the raunchy aspect I was thinking of I can't remember the books that well but just watched the series.

Jilly Cooper is a fantastic writer. People are sniffy about her because she's a posh Englishwoman but her social commentary is easily as sharp as Dickens, Eliot or Updike. With sex and ponies thrown in for good measure (although Updike is filthy too). What's not to love?

My parents never restricted what I read and I borrowed my mum's copy of Riders off the bookshelf at 14 and read them all through my teens and twenties.

Let her give it a try. Kids (and adults) shouldn't limit themselves in their reading based on preconceptions about the author and their origins. .

I promise it didn't turn me intellectually feeble or into a sexual deviant and was welcome relief from serious studies up to and including a Cambridge doctorate.

@Christinglechristmas Why are you worried about the raunchy aspect? Seventeen year olds, on the whole, are pretty interested in sex, both on paper and in real life.

I was a heavyweight reader at 17 but also liked Jilly Cooper.

It was the chance of reading something raunchy that drew us in, but then she is a superior writer so the books are still enjoyable, not just skip to the naughty bits.

I feel like Jilly Cooper should be books you sneakily borrow from your mum's bookcase rather than her buying you your own copies.

It will be quite a different experience for a current 17 year old reading them. Does she know what Laura Ashley and Concorde are?!

I would have sniffed loudly at 17 because I was pretentious about my reading. Now I read almost anything because variety is wonderful and I’ve randomly uncovered some great authors from other people’s recommendations (and read stuff by people that has made me vow never to read anything by them again!). Give it a whirl…but don’t be sad if she ignores them. I adored my DDad and still have the lovely hardback Lord of the Rings set he bought me…still find it unsatisfying to read (yes, I suspect that makes me a heathen) but the books themselves give me great pleasure because DDad gave them to me.

My nearly 15 year old has just started Rivals.

She read all the Sarah Maas books and Fourth Wing etc earlier this year which make Jilly look tame in comparison, in terms of raunchiness.

I would start with Rivals rather than Riders as it has better characters and has fewer "acceptable in the 80s" storylines. If she likes it, she can either go back to Riders or forward to Polo.

I was another interspersing Dostoevsky with Jilly Cooper type teen. There's room for everything.

I don’t think they are too raunchy but the storylines are sooo dated, perhaps more than you might remember. The men are constantly groping women or slagging them off for breastfeeding in public. Women are described as beautiful bitches or dependable old boots etc. That would be my bigger concern but you could start a conversation around it and say that it was a product of its time etc.

Blimey I was reading my mums Jilly Coopers and Jackie Colins at 14. Hollywood Wives is still my favourite re-read. Trust me, she'll have come across much worse in this day and age.