Should I Have Been Allowed to Read That?

What was the most inappropriate thing you had read by the time you were 15 or 16? Some things I had read by that age include the following:

• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)

• Flowers in the Attic

• Interview with a Vampire (which my science teacher asked to borrow after I was done?)

• Almost everything Stephen King had written up through 1987

• The Happy Hooker

(It doesn't fit in with scandalous list above, but I was also obsessed with Erma Bombeck starting around age 11 or 12. I desperately wanted to be seen as the world-wearied housewife and mother of two that I, a pre-teen boy, apparently so identified with.)

So, tell me what yours are:

Do you remember what it felt like reading the book?

Did you feel like you were getting away with anything?

Did you feel as if you had to keep this reading secret?

Or were you reading this stuff openly?

Do you get the sense that your parents also maybe had a list of books they had access to at too young an age? (If so, I'd love to hear what those are, too.)

• ETA: I'm overwhelmed and overjoyed at how freeing this has been, knowing that all of us were little weirdos. I'm thoroughly enjoying all the conversations below with fellow readers.