That hat is awesome!

I remember reading Rosemary's Baby when I was about 10. I won't say it scarred me for life, but it kind of put me off the genre. Never liked movies like that, or the Omen and the only reason I ever saw the Exorcist was to go with some friends from high school to a mid-night showing. Now, that was mistake. A lot of Steven King was watch from the hall or with one eye closed. Never had a problem reading it, it was the visuals that got to me. The Shining was one of those movies, although Firestarter and Dead Zone were two of my favorites (both books and movies.)

I read the FLowers in the Attic series and Erica Jong, as well as about 5,000 historicals when I was 10. I think the thing with books is that while you may be exposed to adult things too soon, you aren't exposed to adult people too soon?

Clan of the Cave Bear. Yeah. Too young.

Jackie Collins The Bitch. At sleepovers. Age 12. Plus The Happy Hooker. Basically, anything naughty we could get our hot little hands on.

Before that, though, it was a lot of skeevy rape culture sci-fi.

AKA, wow, reading Friday was a bad idea when I was 11. And Piers Anthony, what the fuck with the milking machines and the ewwwwwwwww.

Love the hat!

I read Flowers in the Attic when I was around 12 or 13, and by then it was ok. But around the same time I read some book about [trigger warning] child ghosts raping the protagonist, told in graphic detail, and that caused some nightmares. I also read Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse as an adult, and now I can't read Poppy Z. Brite anymore.

A lot of stuff in adult books went right over my head at that age, because I had no frame of reference. I remember re-reading some romantic mysteries many years later and being boggled at what I'd completely glossed over as a kid.

ION, it's a sign of bad things to come when you get stuck in traffic for ten minutes a block from your house, right?

Given that I was writing Batman/Robin (1960s TV versions) when I was 14 and a feral fan, it occurs to me that I'm going to be the worst when it comes to do as I say, not as I do, or if you do, don't tell me and for god's sake, get a beta.

I think I was 9 or 10 when I read Ghost Story - too young to understand what was going on in the sexy bits, so when I asked Mom about them she tore those pages out. But left in everything about Gregory and Fenny Bates, which I can still see in my mind's eye three and a half decades later. Thanks, Mom.

I forgot about Clan of the Cave Bear! My friend and I tried to get them to show the movie in band at the end of the year when all we did was watch movies. Luckily, that did not happen.