Which books did you read before you were really old enough to understand them?

[PineappleSeahorse]

I was a voracious and precocious reader as a child and I became obsessed with my library’s copy of Animal Farm when I was 7. I loved it but of course I had no idea what it was really about.

I suppose that I could have made more inappropriate choices of reading material but I’m curious to know which books you read as a child that you probably shouldn’t have.

I was just going to say Animal Farm and also 1984.

An abridged Jane Eyre as an 11yr old. I remember thinking ‘why are they arguing and being mean if they love each other’? Couldn’t get my head around it

I read all the Virginia Andrews novels when I was about 10 which totally normalised child abuse, rape and incest.

Animal farm. I thought it was a sad story about everything going wrong when the animals tried to run their own farm. And I cried when Boxer died. I was only 9 to be fair…

Many years later when I was old enough to understand it I re-read it and still cried about Boxer.

Me too but a little older as I was in high school. Still at a massively inappropriate age.

Clan of the Cave Bear from Mums bookshelf when I was about 11. Now one of my very favourite series and writers but at the time not the most age appropriate read in some parts.

The L shaped room. Picked it off my parents book shelves when I was 8-9ish.

Those Virginia Andrews novels were horrendous when you look back!

I read Wuthering Heights and thought it was SO romantic. When I read it again as an adult I realised I just wasn't old enough to understand it.

As above Virginia Andrews and also Jackie Collins ! 😉

To Kill a Mockingbird. I don't know if I was too young or just a bit thick, but I didn't get it.

Forever by Judy Blume. Read it and then took it to pass round the canteen at school so we could all have a giggle!

Loads. Like you, I was a precocious reader and read loads of adult books when I was still a child. The one I remember is Richard Adams' Watership Down when I was 9, some years before the film came out. I believe it is actually allegorical, I just read it as though it were The Wind in the Willows and had no idea what half of it was about. I ought to re-read it actually.

I helped myself to ‘Why didn’t they ask Evan’s?’ off my parents’ bookshelf when I was about 8. I had nightmares about falling off cliffs and was an anxious wreck on our next coastal holiday!

The Colour Purple.

The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden.

Definitely written in a much different era.

Persuasion. I was about 13. I read and liked Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey but although I waded through Persuasion I didn’t get it and I was bored. Re-read it last year (35 years later) and found it really poignant.

Jaws.

There's a fair bit of smut in it and my auntie was horrified I got it for Christmas.

Mum thought it was just about a shark when in fact it's mostly about politics and sexual affairs.

I learn!

Lolita

Animal Farm.

I was about 12/13 when I read Princess Daisy by Judith Krantz! Completely inappropriate and I didn't really understand it!

Just about everything that was on my grans bookshelf when i used to stay over at weekends! Soon got through all those. Then helped myself to Forever Amber from my mums collection. I was about 12.

Yes, just the worst abuse and incest. All the Jilly Cooper books as a young teen.

My Sweet Audrina and Forever Amber

Forever by Judy Blume

Forever Amber! I'd forgotten about that. Also read at an inappropriate age

Don Quixote. Lolita . Salems Lot ! I understood it but it scared me shitless