I enjoyed them! I got a whole bunch more from the library. I'm not sure I realized that I was supposed to be embarrassed.

Actually, if you enjoyed them, then no reason you should be embarrassed, right?

I actually only read a couple of both those and SVH/U-- I had grown up reading Cherry Ames that I'd buy at garage sales and rather than the Babysitter's Club or SVH, I read the old line of Silhouette young adult romances.

Of course, I was also reading a lot of the regular Harl/Sil too. And getting Wifey confiscated on a regular basis in seventh grade.

And getting Wifey confiscated on a regular basis in seventh grade.

Yep, and Forever, too.

I have also read enema instructions, automotive manuals, cereal boxes and lots of bad books.

I do think the MSDS are the most boring, though.

Also, I love Cherry Ames!

Actually, if you enjoyed them, then no reason you should be embarrassed, right?

That's the thing, though. I was remembering the halcyon days of youth before I learned there were books for girls and books for boys. Back then, I'd read anything. I had no prejudices. I didn't know what I was "supposed" to read or like. I sort of miss it.

That's the thing, though. I was remembering the halcyon days of youth before I learned there were books for girls and books for boys.

Ahh... I get you. Recalling those days, I didn't even realize there were such things as books for grownups and books for kids. It didn't seem at all odd to me to be reading The Thorn Birds when I was ten. It was just an interesting story. Ditto for The Last Convertible, which remains one of my favorite books.

I only figured it out after those books were taken away in classes.

Barb is me! Or I am Barb! Whichever, it's a good thing.

Now I sort of want to read The Thorn Birds again.

I had a collection of Thurber stories taken away in 5th grade. Thurber? How is that a bad thing for readers of any age?

I am Barb and Amy, too!

I think I still have my mom's paperback copy of The Thorn Birds, which I purloined when I moved out for good, although it probably migrated onto my own bookshelves in my bedroom long before that.

My mom had a bunch of books that had the plot or subplot of a Catholic priest in a forbidden love with some woman (Thy Brother's Keeper was another, IIRC), and now that I'm an adult I can't help wondering if she had a crush on my childhood parish's auxilliary priest -- young, handsome, energetic -- your basic Father What-A-Waste. My Brownie troop loved him because we had meetings in the basement of the rectory and in the winter he'd hide behind the bushes as we left and start snowball fights with us.

Anyway, my mom was very involved in parish council and was a lay reader and communion hander-outer (I *so* can't remember what the term is -- bad [lapsed] Catholic! no wafer!), and so she was at the church a lot. And I remember after he was assigned to another parish, one Sunday he said Mass at wherever it was that was broadcast on TV, and Mom made us watch.

And then all the books about the forbidden love, and I really really hope it was just a crush thing, not actual priestly sex, because I NEVER WANT TO KNOW. Eeek.

I am all of you guys too! Although my mother recently said she thought she should have been supervising my reading more closely, as she is just now, in retirement, getting to books I read off her shelves! But it didn't harm me any, really. I am hardly promiscious because I read Erica Jong when I was too young.