Random Reading At Age Ten

I just remembered a Quora question that came up long ago: What did your parents allow you to do as a kid that you now realize was not age-appropriate?

My answer was,

[They allowed me to] read anything in their bookshelves. Or maybe it was a good thing. My teacher was appalled when, at 10, I was reading Michael McClure’s, "The Beard". I had no idea those words (which I heard every day) were inappropriate, or that the sex scenes were taboo. Heck, at that age, everything was beyond my experience.

It was surprising to feel the heat of opprobrium for doing something that had been something I was always praised for.

That was the first time I was shamed for reading. It didn’t stop me.

My parents were voracious readers, and so was I (and still am.) My father built giant bookshelves to hold all of the books we had, and it still wasn’t enough room. I loved it. I could reach out at any moment and suddenly be transported to Regency England and have secret conversations during a formal dance, or hang out with beatniks in Greenwich Village and muse on the purpose of life, or follow along with brilliant detectives decisively solving incredibly knotty cases.

I can’t imagine what I would have thought if there were books “off limits” to me. Maybe I would have snuck in a read anyway (most likely,) or given up reading entirely as too adult, like broccoli or after-dinner coffee.

What the gate-keepers want is to tell you what to think. What I can tell you is that your kid will self-level, ask questions, and your honest responses will guide them. As for “The Beard”, I read some of it (I’d brought it to school to have something to read during kickball) and didn’t like it much after a dozen pages or so and stopped.

Those things, books, broccoli, and after-dinner coffee are now staples of my life. I can’t imagine living without them.