The Books Your Parents Hated?

My parents did not like the Harry Potter series, they dont realize the "spells, withces, etc" is the means to telling the story. They think the reason the book was written was to talk about "spells, witches, etc"

They feel the same about any D&D stories, and i cant even imagine what they would have done if they caught me reading JTHM.

---Pineapple

EDIT: oh, and when i was younger, Ella Enchanted was off limits too. Nuf' said.

[edit on 16-1-2005 by pineappleupsidedown]

pineappleupsidedown: Yeah, me too with the D&D books. I was scolded religiously (again) for having the Dragonlance series. Some people see anything about D&D and they flip out.

I get my mom very angry about my reading, the reason being not becuas ei read so much, but because every time i go into barnes and noble i end up buying like ten new books.

id have to say im lucky to be going to a Catholic school (although im not catholic) because i do indeed have access to these so called "banned books"

Im also lucky to have had a brilliant teacher freshmen year who gave us such works as Animal Farm, 1984, The Catcher in the Rye, and the illiad. it really opened my mind up, so i decided to go out and buy the entire collection of Brittanica Great Books in hard cover. once again my mother was not pleased.

However, id have to say the most damaging and corrupting book i read was indeed the Bible. my fragile yong mind could barely keep pace with the path of bloody battles, incest, and death.

My parents have always been pretty open to what I read, mainly because they're big readers themselves. However, the one book my mom wasn't happy about me reading was Primary Colors. I first read it in the 7th grade, and it's been one of my favorites ever since.

When I was young I would have to read my favourite books with a flashlight under the covers late at night...they were all science fiction and I was firmly hooked by them. When I finished one, I would give it to my friends so that my parents couldn't find them. Man, do I wish I still had them now...not just the paperbacks, but all the 'pulp fiction' magazines as well.

What really rocked my parents, though, was when I was in highschool and started reading Mad Magazine at home and not hiding that.

I still love Don Martin cartoons 45 years later.

I was never told to read or not read any books. I was however very interested in WWII history and Nazi/National Socialist history in particular from a very young age. ( From my first visit to the library). This was looked on as strange by some teachers, especially an 8 year old reading about national socialism, and had to be explained to one, but I was never told not to read them. This was in the 80's, before the mass P.C. invasion of the 90's so maybe things like that are different now. But as far as Huck Finn or any of those "controversial" books no.

Veltro: Yeah, I have experienced this too. Weird how studying the worst atrocities in our century triggers some kind of immediate fear in others. I mean, what else should people want to know about if not the Nazis? If for no other reason than to avoid a repeat!

Nice avatar, by the way. :^)

JOEL: "What do you want for Christmas, Crow?

CROW: "I wanna decide who lives and who dies."

JOEL: "Oh, I don't know..."

My parents are both deceased, but they never while alive objected to any of the books I read. Admittedly, they didn't think much of my carrying around Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" when I was in college during the sixties, but I think my old dad realized it was just a cheap ploy on my part to try to pick up women. And my collection of "cannabis cultivator" books, too; but remember, this was forty years ago. Times change.

AS far as books which changed my life -- I guess there're four.

"Mr. Wizard" morphed into lots of science books which, much later, became engineering texts in college, and is one reason why, today, I do not rummage through dumpsters for clothes or food.

"Alfred's Basic Guitar Method, Book 1" turned into a whole series of method books, and morphed into both the Carcassi Studies, Fernando Sor's Variations , the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach -- AND, in a horrible irony, Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo, Peter Wernick's Bluegrass Improvisation and other similar degenerate texts. That, in turn has built me a lifelong hobby and a part-time job for the last 40 years.

Will and Ariel Durant's Story of Civilization opened my eyes to an encompassing, synthetic history; and the wonderful works of the philospher-novelist Alice Rosenbaum -- who changed her name but kept her initials -- led me to the understanding of the inherent evil of collectivism.

And finally, The Narnia Chronicles, especially the last book of the series, led me, at the age of 47, to ask the most important question of all: "What must I do to be Saved?"

the wonderful works of the philospher-novelist Alice Rosenbaum -- who changed her name but kept her initials -- led me to the understanding of the inherent evil of collectivism.

Yeah, I read every word ol' Alice ever wrote, including a bunch of her taped lectures. Her books showed me how it was possible to make caring for others look like a bad thing.

She was a good capitalist, I'll give her that. Ironically, she was the one who really made me want to learn about socialism because John Galt was such an a-hole. But that's a subject for a different post.

Speaking of unlikeable main characters, I was also scolded for having: The Chronicles of Thomas Convenant. Truly an astounding read if you can tolerate Covenant himself. It's the surrounding characters that make it so amazing, and the second trilogy is even better. I read these books every two years or so. Way better than Lord of the Rings, IMO.

I do remember getting that book taken away from me when I was in high school. It was already 20 years old by then and fairly tame by the days standards, but my mom threw a fit. Probably too many memories of her own "flower child" days.

Great book if you get the chance to read it.

B.

I never had any problems with the books I read, my parents, like a lot of backwoods people back then couldnt read or write so they didnt have a clue what I was reading. Most of the older members of my family never stepped foot into a school.

I could read whatever I wanted

Originally posted by smallpeeps
Veltro: Yeah, I have experienced this too. Weird how studying the worst atrocities in our century triggers some kind of immediate fear in others. I mean, what else should people want to know about if not the Nazis? If for no other reason than to avoid a repeat!

Nice avatar, by the way. :^)

JOEL: "What do you want for Christmas, Crow?

CROW: "I wanna decide who lives and who dies."

JOEL: "Oh, I don't know..."

Exactly, you study that period in history and some people think your studying to become the next Himmler or something. People's sensitivites on the subject are manifested in strange ways. Hehe thanks, I love that avatar, it's also my desktop. True blue Mstie here.

"Ah, the nights we'd linger over brandy at EAT."
" I'm an icky elf!"
(Girl in Gold Boots, MST3k, for some reason my favorite ep. I've seen it an unhealthy number of times.)

smallpeeps, if you find ol' Alice a bit ... aggressive, you should read Heinlein's "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long" from his chef d'ouvre, "Time Enough for Love".

I think it's a bit more palatable.

I figured I'd compile all of the responses so far to this thread. Not all of these have been mentioned as books your parents specifically hated but I'd say this list is a recipe for a good counter-culture education...

Anything by Ayn Rand/Alice Rosenbaum
1984 (Orwell)
The Upanishads
Demon (Varley)
'The Protocols'
The Satanic Bible (La Vey)
Anything by Noam Chomsky
The Biography of Che Guevarra
Brave New World (Huxley)
101 Days of Sodom (De Sade)
Hollow Earth (Bernard)
Anything by Eustace Mullins
T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone (Bey)
The Stand (King)
Anything by Julian Simon
How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty (Breitman/Hatch)
The Bible
The Book of Mormon
The Harry Potter Series
Any D&D books/novels
Animal Farm (Orwell)
The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
The Illiad (Homer)
Primary Colors (Anonymous)
Mad Magazine
"Little Red Book" (Mao Zedong)
Story of Civilization (Durant)
The Narnia Chronicles (Lewis)
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (Donaldson)
Go Ask Alice (Anonymous)

...and best of all, ATS!

Now as a further question, when you look at this list, which ones do you think are the most subversive or potentially disruptive to a young human mind? Please explain your answers.




[edit on 13-3-2005 by smallpeeps]

This whole topic is foreign to me. My parents only encouraged me to read. When we moved into a new house, we had more boxes of books than anything else (boy was that a pain). I can't even imagine someone telling me not to read something... I even read my mother's college copy of The Communist Manifesto and Catcher in the Rye.