I get the feeling that people who cite this book don't remember it very well.

Or they're thinking of the Olivier movie.

Christopher Pike

Oh lordy. That brings back memories. "Remember Me" and "Weekend" are the most vivid, probably b/c I owned them and therefore read them each many, many times.

I didn't ever get in trouble for reading in school, that I remember. My mom did once try and get me to stop reading Judy Blume books b/c she felt they were a little age-inappropriate. I'd read a bunch by then, anyway, and kept on reading them behind her back.

In elementary school we had designated reading time.

The only version of Wuthering Heights I'm familiar with is Monty Python's semaphore version.

eta: Oh, and that Kate Bush song.

the entire encyclopedia

Oh, good! I've always been afraid I was the only one who read the encylopedia for fun.

My mom did once try and get me to stop reading Judy Blume books b/c she felt they were a little age-inappropriate.

The only book my mom ever banned me from reading was Forever. Of course, one of my junior high friends had a copy and it went through our entire group within a few weeks.

I'd pick a book up from school, and if I finished it at home, that's where I put it down.

In fifth or sixth grade, there was a lost book on the chalkboard for a few days, and when nobody claimed it, I took it home and read it and brought it back. The owner, when he finally noticed it was missing, just let me keep it. And so began my Christopher Pike obsession.

About the only time my parents got upset over something I read was when I picked up a library book my mother left laying around. I was about 14 or 15, and the book was a Jacqueline Susann novel.

On the other hand, if they'd been more familiar with popular fiction of the '70s, they might have been more upset. I learned a lot from reading The Godfather when I was 13.

On the other hand, if they'd been more familiar with popular fiction of the '70s, they might have been more upset. I learned a lot from reading The Godfather when I was 13.

Harold Robbins, read when I was about that same age--definitely an eye-opener! Also around that same time, I picked up my older brother's copy of Lenny Bruce's widow's bio, which was extremely explicit in describing some parties she attended.

The only books I wouldn't want my kids to read would be ultraviolent books, or, say, "how to blow up your school". Do libraries just let kids borrow anything?

I had an English teacher in high school pick up my Silhouette Desire book off the top of my stack of books before class started. She then proceeded to open the book all the way up, bending the front cover to the back cover (arrrrgh!!!) and then read a random passage in a very mocking way. It really pissed me off to no end that she felt the need to mock my reading choice to the entire class, not to mention the way she mangled my book.

In the sixth grade, I was reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series. I think I was reading A Princess of Mars with a Frank Frazetta cover--naked, oiled Martian body and half-naked John Carter. The principal was making a round of our classroom one day. He stopped by my desk, spied the book and picked it up. I sucked in my breath and my cheeks turned flaming red. He perused the back of the novel, flipped through it, realized what it was and put it back on my desk--cover side down.

No words were spoken. But the librarian at our tiny, rural elementary school made sure I had access to most of the adult material in the library because she knew I could read it all.