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Original poster

books i read too young... and yours?

41 replies

tyaca · 26/02/2008 23:36

ooohhh.... satanic verses & unbearable lightness of being are the first ones to spring to my mind. aged about 13. actually, maybe the title shouldnt be "books i read too young" but should instead be "books i only persevered with because i was so young... nowadays i would not be othered after page 4".

OP posts:
BoysAreLikeDogs · 26/02/2008 23:39

Hmmm

The Foundation Trilogy

All Tolkien, should have stopped at The Hobbit, stupid farking Tom Bombadil blighted a few months of my teenage years

Forever Amber (pilfered from my Mum)

There's more, I'll have a think

sushistar · 26/02/2008 23:40

Lord of the Flies. It totally freaked me out.

JossStick · 26/02/2008 23:43

Tom Bombadil is without argument the coolist person in LOTR.

That is all!

Original poster
tyaca · 26/02/2008 23:45

lord of the flies changed my world view forever. and not in a good way.

at no age have i ever thought that tolkein might be a good way to spend a single hour of my life

OP posts:
ChicktoriaPeckham · 26/02/2008 23:46

Animal Farm

ChicktoriaPeckham · 26/02/2008 23:46

1984

ChicktoriaPeckham · 26/02/2008 23:46

The Long Walk by Stephen King w/a Richard Bachman.
I didn't sleep for months!

BoysAreLikeDogs · 26/02/2008 23:47

I know, I know !

Original poster
tyaca · 26/02/2008 23:50

at boysarelike dogs... i was forced to cinema to see first film. the only reason i didnt walk out was cause someone else had paid for me. that and the fact we were in an out of town cinema and he was driving. all i could think was "lose the ring! chuck it! look at all the grief its giving you..."

OP posts:
ChicktoriaPeckham · 26/02/2008 23:51

"lose the ring! chuck it! look at all the grief its giving you..."
ROFL!

S1ur · 26/02/2008 23:52

Wild swans.

I am still too young for that book I read about Rwanda genocide.

Cataline · 26/02/2008 23:52

Flowers in the attic and the subsequent ones whatever they were called. I took them off my Grandma's bookshelf. My mum found them in my bedroom and went mental. I was 8

BananaPudding · 26/02/2008 23:54

Pet Cemetery....

Alambil · 26/02/2008 23:57

ohhh I know - Dead Man Walking; read when I was about 13/14 ... my mum wanted to ban it from me but I said I'd just skip the graphic parts.

Read Flowers in the Attick et al when I was about 14/15 and loved them...

I was too virtuous as a kid/ too sheltered to be allowed access to "adult" literature - am boring!

Original poster
tyaca · 26/02/2008 23:57

cataline what on earth was your grandma doing with the virginia andrews books? i can well imagine why an eight year old would be gripped, but granny? thats just dark. looking back on my parents childhood supervisin of my reading, i'm a teensy bit shocked they were so militant about enid blyton but let my flowers in the attic phase go on for as long as it did...

OP posts:
purpleduck · 27/02/2008 00:06

tyaca, maybe cataline's gran was using it as a HOW TO manual...

I read Valley Of The Dolls when i was 11 ish. The rape scene has stayed with me > My mom didn't really notice what I read....

Oh, read lots of Danielle Steele books at about the same age. My eldest sister loaned them to me. WHAT WAS SHE THINKING!!! Luckily I realised that not all wonderful relationships come with a filthy rich/gorgeous/ and generally perfect man....

havalina · 27/02/2008 00:08

OMG I remember that long walk book, the first horror book I read is a bit vague, but the one I remember is pet cemetary, loved that one.

I read horror as fast as my mum and have loved it ever since, I'm just glad I didn't get into the whole de'sade etc stuff, which my mum read when she was young. She did kind of restrict my reading, but I read most of what she did.

BoysAreLikeDogs · 27/02/2008 00:09

Ewww flowers in the attic

Further to my list is

Rogue Male - why would anyone ever want to read such twaddle, stupid O levels. Sheesh

Oh, and Reader's Digest, always there in the bathroom when you had to have a 'sit-down'

northender · 27/02/2008 00:11

Danielle Steel over here! Was chuffed when they made hard cash for me at a car boot sale though

madamez · 27/02/2008 00:11

Rather a lot of HP Lovecraft, which gave me nightmares. And I used to sneak into parents' room when they were out and read bits of things like The Dice Man when I was about 13 (now there is an utterly rubbish book - interesting concept but one long misogynistic wank...)

Funnily enough I re-read The Long Walk when in hospital having DS. Not reading I'd recommend for a gas&air hangover and the shellshock of just having given birth...

slim22 · 27/02/2008 00:13

Too many to list.
Was one of those bespectacled smart asses.
Glad I did though. Like you, wouldn't go past page 4 now!

I find novels so boring now. Unless it's a bio or historical or travel writting.

RedJools · 27/02/2008 00:13

I stole "Love Without Fear" from my parents room, aged 12, and read it red-faced at the thought of my MUM and DAD getting up to these things

Original poster
tyaca · 27/02/2008 00:15

BALD - the only reading matter in our loo were railways timetables which used to keep my dad engrossed.

then there are the books that are just ruined by a too-young read. i met an uber-bright 10yo who had just read pursuit of love and when she looked at me blankly when i suggested the ending was quite sad, i couldnt help thinking she should have waited...

OP posts:
JeremyVile · 27/02/2008 00:16

The Joy of Sex.

At about 5.

Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong

BoysAreLikeDogs · 27/02/2008 00:18

at railway timetables

Off to bed my lovlies