books i read too young... and yours?

[tyaca]

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".

Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
not appropriate for A level students, now I am jaded 40 year old then perhaps

Persuasion. You have to be over 30 to appriciate the poignancy.
Paradise Lost. I think I am old enough to reread it now I am over 40, but whether I have the time is another matter.
The Great Gatsby. I loved it as a teenager, thinking it incredibly romantic. I reread it this year and realised that it is actually unbelievably sad.

definitely Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

I was 12

Fanny Hill at 10.

ooh, I like this thread. I LOVE Persuasion and The Pursuit of Love. I cried and cried at the latter, all the characters are fab, and I think it has the most lovely, pull you in openings in almost any book I have read.

I think for me, Jane Eyre. I read it so young the early part with Helen Burns still feels more heartflt and resonant with me than the later relationship with Mr Rochester, because subsequent readings of it are completely coloured by early impressions. I can't read it as an adult, I'm still 12 when I read it, viewing it as I did then.

Catcher in the Rye- about 13, but realised even then that there was a lot more to it than I was getting

Pride and Prejudice- about 12 thought it sooo dull at the time

Sons and Lovers- the poigniancy was obvious to me but I was too young to feel it at 16/17.

I read The Story of O that my parents had on the sitting room shelves!!! prob about 11 or 12!!! My mum found it in my room and got v embarrassed and said that it was a 'nasty book' and not for children.

On a more serious note, I read quite a few Tom Sharpe novels when I was about the same age, and really didn't get them. Reading again now, I wonder what the heck I was thinking of.

Ditto Sons and Lovers, Pride and Prejudice and White Swans (although I think I didn't finish that one.

The colour purple at the age of 10

Forever by Judy blume when I was 10, page 73 of the hardback version was when she met 'Ralph' my friend and I sneaked it out the library in my mum's bag on wheels.

Catcher in the Rye again.

I felt unbelievably depressed for about a year after reading it. I still have it on my bookshelf. I may read it again one day but I almost shudder whenever it catches my eye.

I don't even know why it made me feel so depressed I just know it felt really dark to me

Aged 14 maybe.

Holocaust at about 12, quite a few by Leon Uris at that age too, I also read Pride and Prejudice at about that age.

Hollywood wives! I was about 13 and pretty innocent! I read it as I wasn't aware it was so 'adult' in content, and neither was my mum.

I read everything in the house from Jane Eyre and holocaust accounts to Flowers in the Attic and The Amytiville Horror. I was way too young for most of it. I vividly remember being 11 or so and being afraid of seeing demon piggy eyes at the window.

A Clockwork Orange - I was about 13

The Naked Ape sex chapter (attracted by naked people on the front) aged about 8.

I looked like this for weeks, but boy was I well informed. I was the NQC of the primary school

ROFL at turquises link