Fred: Oh my God! Angel, you're…cute! Angel: Fred, don't! Fred: Oh, but the little hands! And the hair! Angel: Hey! You're fired.

'Smile Time'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Toddson - Jan 15, 2014 11:06:03 am PST #21952 of 28359
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"

My parents didn't censor my reading or TV (in fairness, back then TV was pretty consistently family friendly).


Jesse - Jan 15, 2014 11:23:49 am PST #21953 of 28359
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I only remember trying to censor my mother's reading, because she was reading YA along with me, and I eventually read something where the Did It, and I didn't want my mother to know I had read that. I don't think I was ever interested in anything really inappropriate, though -- assuming you think Agatha Christie is appropriate for small children.


Fred Pete - Jan 15, 2014 11:55:46 am PST #21954 of 28359
Ann, that's a ferret.

Don't know how small you mean, but at 11 or 12, I read a lot of whodunits from the public library. Although I preferred Ellery Queen and Erle Stanley Gardner to Agatha Christie.


Amy - Jan 15, 2014 11:59:18 am PST #21955 of 28359
Because books.

I found the Beany Malone series in our library when I was a kid (not mystery, to be clear, just circa early 1950s kids' fiction), and I LOVED them.

I also read a lot of my mom's romantic suspense, like Dorothy Eden and Phyllis Whitney.


Jesse - Jan 15, 2014 12:00:52 pm PST #21956 of 28359
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I was into the Poirot at probably 9 or 10. So murder, but light!


Jessica - Jan 15, 2014 3:32:28 pm PST #21957 of 28359
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

My parents had rules about TV and movies, but not books. My mom was definitely better about guiding me towards age-appropriate stuff - I think my dad sort of mentally logged anything he read before age 30 under "stuff I read as a kid" so his notion of what I was ready for at age 10 was a little skewed.


Pix - Jan 15, 2014 3:37:09 pm PST #21958 of 28359
The status is NOT quo.

My parents never censored me either, though my mom frequently made dire predictions about how "all that stuff" I read was going to end up in my nightmares. It got to be a running joke, as she was still saying it to me until the past couple of years. My mom is a very slow reader; I suspect she may have some mild reading disorder the way her brother and mom do, so she just didn't read much. My dad, otoh, read medical thrillers and mysteries and was pretty much never without a book in hand. I think the one time they ever gently steered me away from a book was when I found Clan of the Cave Bear on the bookshelf and took it to my mom to see if she thought it would be a good book for me. Heh.


flea - Jan 15, 2014 3:46:20 pm PST #21959 of 28359
information libertarian

I read Anais Nin off my mother's study bookcase. But I was in high school.


Strix - Jan 15, 2014 4:01:34 pm PST #21960 of 28359
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

I was totally non-censored by parents, but teachers and librarians tried to censor my reading, which never worked. I was reading Little House AND bodice-rippers. But I was a reading mutant, as has been established.

AFA reading Divergent, personally, I think the discussion/warning/read if you want with discussion tack is appropriate. As a parental figure, I veto some TV/film/videos but am very much non-censory when it comes to books. I give warnings, and talk about the book. M is a pretty good self-censorer when it comes to stuff, in saying "I think this might be too scary for me" and we go from there.

"Where The Red Fern Grows" was THE most upsetting book I read before age 12, and I was reading all KINDS of crazy stuff with sex, violence, death and monsters.


Amy - Jan 15, 2014 4:17:04 pm PST #21961 of 28359
Because books.

Was there another book with a title like that, but with lilies? I remember something like that traumatized me.