So I found a new genre

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Thank you. Unfortunate combination of not being a native speaker together with phone input and auto correct.
I should have mentioned that my parents read the Danish translations of those books so they came out some give years after they were originally published.
Puzzo I also remember, they were boss about the mafia, right?

Yes. I think you mean Mario Puzzo's books in the Godfather series.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

My dad was a big Louis L'Amour fan when I was young. I remember reading a lot of them when my father was done. I was always very excited when he finished reading one and gave it to me.

Me, too! My dad and some of the guys he worked with used to pass them around, so there were always plenty of them. Then I hit the jackpot. One of the other altar boys in my church had most of them, and he would bring about half a dozen every week for me. My parents and I were reading like crazy trying to get them done before the week was over. Good thing L'Amour was writing them short in those days.

About five or ten years ago, I picked up "The Mustang Man" again, since I remembered really liking it and reading it about three times back when I was young. Strangely, I didn't get the feeling that I had ever read it before when re-reading it, so there was pretty much nothing that stayed with me over time. That's another way I'm getting more like my father. He just keeps re-reading them, since he forgets the plot after a few years.

[VictoriaP]

Mom wasn't a tremendous reader; the three things I can think of from her shelves that weren't decorative items are a book of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories, Lauren Bacall's autobiography By Myself, and the first four or five books from Howard Fast's Immigrants series in hardcover. And yes, I've read them all both while I was still in school and as an adult, though only the mysteries have been repurchased in ebook form. I'm not sure how much of the Immigrants books I remember at this point, it's been years and my TBR pile's a little too big to pick them back up again. I remember liking them well enough before though.

My grandmother read a bit more, but what I remember from her shelves would be things like Danielle Steel, Judith Krantz, and Jackie Collins...and I'm just not as interested in revisiting those.

[morriss003]

Ouch!! You youngin's can be a pain in the okole sometimes. I suppose a lot of you think Paul McCartney's famous band was Wings.

[VictoriaP]

Originally Posted by morriss003

Ouch!! You youngin's can be a pain in the okole sometimes. I suppose a lot of you think Paul McCartney's famous band was Wings.

I have to admit, I was pleased he played a lot of Wings' hits on tour this year. "Live & Let Die" played live was probably the best concert experience I've ever seen.

(He had a nice balance between Beatles/solo/and Wings stuff overall. HIGHLY recommend taking in one of his shows if you can. The man can still entertain, that's for sure.)

/end

This topic really has me wracking my brain, only to recognize once again that I really was the only heavy reader in my branch of the family. I barely remember seeing any of them with a book in their hands, whereas I almost never was without one. My husband's retired parents, on the other hand, are definitely heavy readers now; I'll have to ask if that was always the case & see if he has additions to the Parental Genre.

[sakura-panda]

My parents didn't read either, but the books you all are talking about are the ones that were very popular when I was in high school, working as a page at the public library. They were ones that didn't sit on the shelves and had long wait-lists; I used to think that I should read them myself one day; I'm pretty sure I've never read a single one since.

[jtdolphins]

My dad never read. My mom read a lot of the Harlequin books back in the day. Now a days she reads only mystery books. Its a very narrow range of authors she reads. She's worried about what she will read if they pass away. She has no intentions of branching out and I was told not to bring it up again. We have nothing in common, but my sister and mom read a lot of the same books and swap them.

It was a neighbor who got me reading. I had either finished mowing his lawn or babysitting for him. He paid me and gave me The Sword of Shannara to read. He thought I might like because he had taught me to make maps for the game Wizardry on Apple (around '85). He gave me a tip the next and recommended that I buy Tolkien. His books had fallen apart so he couldn't give them to me.

I read a lot of SF, fantasy, historical, nutritional and working my way through Dickens slowly.

[NickyWithNook]

My parents were obsessed with Michener. They were hoarders of his books.

I haven't read any of those but I have read Exodus, which I really liked. I should try the Michener books at some point.

[applesauce]

As a young teen I read Harold Robbins, Mario Puzo and other such authors. I tried going back to some of them last year. It was a sad disappointment. I remember what a huge impact these books had on me. The begging and pleading with the librarian to let me read them at 12 and 13. The clever way I worked out just which librarians could be conned into letting me into the adult section. I tried last year, 4 different books by the above 2 authors and a couple more. I found the books scary in how sexist they were, how for the most part beyond tacky. How did they ever make this impact on me is beyond me now. I had so wanted to go back and read Valley of the Dolls. I think I just do not want my childhood memory ruined by finding out all that was so amazing at the time, was nothing but a bit of horrible tacky sexist writing. I am certain that will be the case lol

applesauce

Originally Posted by elemenoP

My parents must be the same generation as yours. They had all of the books you mention, plus works by Mario Puzo, Chaim Potok, Herman Wouk, Mary Renault, many others. Do young people read any of these authors today? I read some of them when I was in my teens and a few had a big effect on me. Sometimes I think about going back to these authors.

eP

[Kumabjorn]

How would we able to discover our own sexuality without tacky sexist authors?

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

How would we able to discover our own sexuality without tacky sexist authors?

Valley of the Dolls! I couldn't check this one out at the library (it was in the restricted section), but I could take it down and go sit in the children's section and read it. This was before the days of cellphones, so one of my brothers or my sister would have to ride their bike to the library to tell me to come home. It was only a block from out house, but boy, did it make them mad!

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Valley of the Dolls! I couldn't check this one out at the library (it was in the restricted section), but I could take it down and go sit in the children's section and read it. This was before the days of cellphones, so one of my brothers or my sister would have to ride their bike to the library to tell me to come home. It was only a block from out house, but boy, did it make them mad!

You were the little troublemaker of the family (according to your siblings) huh Sydney's Mom.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by crich70

You were the little troublemaker of the family (according to your siblings) huh Sydney's Mom.

More like the oddball!

[bookaho!ic]

i have read two of chaim potek's books they were exceptional

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Is this something the rest of you do? Usually you'd have to find something like this in a used book store, but with e-books they are suddenly easy to get hold of.

I have read most of stuff that my parents have read. It was easy. I was voracious reader, and when I ran out of stuff to read I simply picked stuff from our modest bookcase at home.
Can you image the horror of running out of library books to read Saturday evening with a bookless Sunday looming on the horizon ;-). I couldn't wait till Monday afternoon so I could pick up new books at the Library.

Very soon, however, the situation reversed. My father started to read books that I kept bringing home from the library. He never went to the library to get his own stuff, so he often ended up reading my books. My parents used to read much less than I did, so he had no problem picking a book to read among heaps of books I was bringing home all the time. I even had a special written permission to get non-kiddie (I am trying to avoid word adult, as it means something different nowadays) books at the library (mostly detective books) saying I was bringing them home for father. I have read them all too ;-), it was just librarians trying to steer me towards selection that was ... aehm ... appropriate for my age. Phew!