Generation gap?

There were four of us at knitting last night ranging in age from approximately 26-40. All three of the other ladies have worked at the same place so they talked shop for a while, and then we detoured into a talk of books. As we were discussing things we had read in school, or at least at a junior high age, and a book came up that the two older of us in the room immediately recognized, and the two younger folks had never even heard of. So now I'm wondering if having read, or at least heard of, this book is the age predictor I think it is.

Poll #1666968 have you read

Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All. Participants: 30

The book: "Flowers in the Attic" by VC Andrews

View Answers

Of course I read it, everyone was reading it

22(66.7%)

Lots of my friends read it but I stayed away, do you know what that book is about?

0(0.0%)

I've heard of it, but eh

4(12.1%)

The who in the what now?

2(6.1%)

Ticky in the attic!

5(15.2%)

Your age range please.

View Answers

0-20

1(3.4%)

21-30

11(37.9%)

31-40

16(55.2%)

41-50

1(3.4%)

age has no meaning

0(0.0%)

From my perspective: this book was everywhere when I was in junior high, and I wanted to know what the fuss was. Given the subject matter it's the only book my mother ever directly told me I wasn't allowed to read.** So I had a friend check it out of the library on her card and smuggled it home. It was certainly interesting, but I didn't love it and never read the sequels. Mom found it while she was cleaning and I got into some trouble for reading it, but mostly we talked about the subject matter and why she had told me not to read it in the first place.

**I was allowed into the adult section of the library after the sixth grade. The only standard book rule in our house was Mom had to know what I was reading before I read it and would occasionally offer advice. (When I wanted to read 1984 in 1984 at age 11, she suggested I wait a few years so I would get it. That seemed reasonable to me and I ended up reading it as a sophomore.) Anything she was nervous about she would either check with the Lit teachers at school (she worked in the school office) or read herself when I finished with it. I unintentionally introduced my mom to a lot of authors and books that way.

Tags: books, curiosity, poll

20 comments — :

( 20 comments — Leave a comment )

geekjul

2011-01-11 08:02 pm (UTC)

Your mom sounds really cool about that kind of stuff. I had to hide a lot of books from my mom :( But yeah, I remember borrowing that book from a friend because everyone was reading it. I was totally grossed out and didn't read any of the sequels.

beeker121

2011-01-11 10:10 pm (UTC)

I think because my mom was a reader too she got it better than most. She wanted to be certain that I always had someone to talk to if I got confused or had questions.

I wasn't grossed out by the book, just not very invested in what might happen next.

theafaye

2011-01-11 08:18 pm (UTC)

I was allowed to read anything I liked and read this as well as all the sequels. The only thing that grossed me out about it was the terrible film adaptation and the books Andrews didn't write but are marketed as hers.

2011-01-11 10:12 pm (UTC)

This was the only time Mom told me flat out to not read something, and we all figured out quickly that the approach wasn't going to work. I've never seen the film adaption, or even knew that they put out books under her name not by her. I think as it turned out the book was just enough over my age range to bore me a bit, so mom got her wish after all.

shadowwolf13

2011-01-11 11:26 pm (UTC)

I've read it and I'm currently 29. When I read it though? I was 8. I fell in love with the author and slowly amassed a collection. Still today it's a favorite guilty pleasure.

2011-01-13 06:56 pm (UTC)

Wow, I'm not sure I would have understood it when I was 8. I certainly get the 'guilty pleasure' thing though, it is a book that falls solidly in that category.

2011-01-18 01:08 am (UTC)

I understood nearly all of it, even then. Though reading it later I did uncover a few more layers that I hadn't the first time though; most of that I think was from reading the rest of the series though.

i_smell_apples

2011-01-11 11:45 pm (UTC)

I read it when I was 13, in 1995, because I'd had this weird obsession with the film ever since I first saw it and one day in the library I discovered that OMG IT'S A BOOK TOO! But I doubt any of my friends at the time would have heard of it.

2011-01-13 06:57 pm (UTC)

I hadn't ever heard of the film until comments to this post. Now I might have to track it down.

2011-01-13 09:30 pm (UTC)

It's fabulously trashy, I loved it! Haven't seen it in a while. Also, I think it ends differently to the book - I remember being all OMG when I finished the book because it was different!

pricelessone

2011-01-12 12:56 am (UTC)

I read it in 1995 at 14 after stumbling upon it in my high school library. My mom knew I read it. She had also read it when she was around that age. She didn't seem too excited that I was reading it, but she didn't tell me I couldn't.

2011-01-13 06:58 pm (UTC)

It almost seems like the book is a rite of passage for girls in their young teens. Interestingly I don't remember if my mom had read the book herself or not.

catanzey

2011-01-12 04:15 am (UTC)

I read it in late elementary/early middle school- I think my mom bought it, read it, and then gave it to me! (I also read "My Sweet Audrina" which I really liked for some reason. That is where my love for the name "Damian" comes from, I think.) But we are discovering there are a lot of things I read/watched that maybe I shouldn't have... Periodically, I realize "Wait- I was how old when I read that??"

The movie of FitA was TERRIBLE.

2011-01-13 06:59 pm (UTC)

I've never read "My Sweet Audrina", perhaps I should try something else by the author to see what I think.

Heh, Mom mostly let me read way above my level but was still careful about anything with obvious sex or too much violence, so this book set of all of her sensors.

zeebeemay

2011-01-12 08:01 am (UTC)

I would like to add teh caveat that while I knew about it in Jr high for sure, I didn't read it until college. I got that from the library, but I did borrow the direct sequel from my best friend, who'd had it for years and years. That one was soo ridiculous I didn't make to any of the others. However, in jr high, I read another one of her books that was a one off, and equally as creepy, in it's own special way.

I just had the discussion with my mom this last Xmas about how there was no book in the house that was taboo for me to know about, but there was definitely a limit to what I was allowed to pick up. But rather than "oh no that's not for you, put that away, where did you even get that" it was "now is not the time for you to be reading that, but when you're older you can check it out." And even in that it was implied that it was my level of comprehension that was at issue not so much the subject matter. The only two books I specifically remember being an issue were Little Birds by Anais Nin and Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. So yeah... I could pretty much read whatever, I still usually chose to find my own books rather than what was around the house.

2011-01-12 08:02 am (UTC)

Haha, the one I read was My Sweet Audrina. (I didn't read that comment before posting!)

2011-01-13 07:02 pm (UTC)

It's interesting, at the age when I started to go through Mom's bookshelves looking for reading material there was one book she wanted to be certain I would never read - Charles Manson's autobiography (which apparently also had some photos). So she took it from where it had been hidden and threw it away - got it out of the house entirely. Interestingly ever since she told me this I'm torn about actually finding the book and reading it. I kind of figure if she went to all that trouble to keep it away from me maybe that's how it should stay.

thetheatremouse

2011-01-13 02:09 am (UTC)

I feel the need to qualify my answer: I didn't read it in an 'everyone was reading it' because it had all the hype kind of way. It was on one of my school reading lists at some point. I don't remember exactly when. So I read it for that reason.

2011-01-13 07:03 pm (UTC)

Wow, it's on a school reading list? I was a naive little girl so the subject matter was hugely shocking to me, but then I guess it would start interesting conversations.

melodinous

2011-01-16 08:35 pm (UTC)

I think I read it in 6th grade. In high school, my sister found a V.C. Andrews series of books where the main character was named Melody. It was of course kind of creepy and incestuous, but I still read every book :)

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