When Your Dad Reads.......

[Brycen]

A couple of years ago Dad was in the hospital for a month. He started to write a novel.

He asked me how far the editors let the books get sex wise. I told him a few names of authors who pushed the edge. Yes I told him about Laurel. He started to read the Anita Blake series. He shocked me by reading the whole series.

He is now also addicted to a few other series like Sookie and The Dresden Files. He wont cross the line into true paranormal chick lit. It is scary enough already. I am thankful for that line. He also promises to never read Merry Gentry.

I think I need therapy and lots of it to get over the thought of Dad reading my favorite Smut. Does anyone else have this problem?

B

[Shannon]

No, not my dad - it is kinda disturbing to have your parents know what you're reading, cause then they might get an idea of what's going through your mind! But, at least you didn't suggest a few erotica titles... ;)

Is Merry Gentry more explicit than Anita Blake? I haven't read any. I read one Anita Blake - the first one - and wasn't impressed. Bored, would be a better word for it.

[Brycen]

No I did not offer him Erotica titles as he wanted to see what was acceptable with in normal fiction.

He has gone with me to Romantic Times for the autograph room. There was no way we were shelling out the money for tickets to the rest of it. So he saw all the erotica authors. These people even interviewed him for some documentary on LKH fans. I nearly died laughing at him because he pulled out his sookie book to prove he read Anita. I said Anita Daddy not Sookie.

[Melani D]

Once upon a time my Dad picked up a book from my library - it was Mercy by David Lindsey. VERY graphic sex scenes - it was about a psycho sexual murderer. I think that was the one book that Dad & I never talked about....lol

[Pumpkin]

I'm a Merry/Doyle fan too, Trinity. You have excellent taste!

TPQ

[Amanda]

Brycen wrote: "I think I need therapy and lots of it to get over the thought of Dad reading my favorite Smut. Does anyone else have this problem?"

Hi Brycen! Your post cracked me up, as I have a very similar problem. My b-mom and I started trading books a few months back, which wasn't horrible because I'd made her promise that we wouldn't discuss anything having to do with sex. However... I found out that when the sex scenes are really good she reads them to her husband! I love her hubby, but I don't want him getting any ideas from me! haha

[Jessa]

Isn't that funny, because I was totally fine with stealing my mom's romances, but I'm not necessarily okay with it going the other way around :)

It's bad enough when you find out your family reads your blog... Eesh.

[Amanda]

It is definitely one of life's ironies. I had to hide a book once so my mom wouldn't read it. (But really, if it made me blush, I don't think a staid Irish Catholic mom could handle it any better!)

On an unrelated note, Jessa, your book is on my 'to buy when I actually have some money' list. I'm looking forward to reading it :)

[Sandy]

My mom reads my Sookie books as well as a few other vampire books and romances that have sex scenes in them and it doesn't bother me since we don't discuss the sex scenes.

However, when I was in college I found out that she borrowed a copy of Playgirl to show to her freinds. That really freaked me out.

[FlibBityFLooB]

I lent my dad (64 yrs, former English Professor) ONE FOR THE MONEY by Janet Evanovich. It doesn't have any explicit sex scenes in it, but I was still embarrased to lend it to him because of some of the things in it. I asked: "You sure you want to read my smut?" He said he could handle smutty books.

He enjoyed the book, so I don't regret lending it to him.

I still think I wouldn't ever talk to him about half the books I read. I'm embarassed to recommend some of the books I read to my co-workers without making fun of the 'smut' I read ;) They're used to it by now...

[Ann aka Iftcan]

hey Bry--you know not to ask Oz that, right? Since she and I trade books all the time. :oP But now way would either if use lend one of "our" books to MY Mum. She just wouldn't appreciate them at all. She's always thought I was a changeling because of my reading habits. But then again, I got MY reading habits from my big brother. He introduced me to Tarzan, John Carter of Mars and the Marvel comic universe. Hey, big brothers have to be good for something other than picking on you and disapproving of all your boyfriends, right?

Ann in VA

[Cathy]

Hilarious! I always traded romance novels with my mom, but if my dad was reading a lot of the stuff I read it would be just weird. Like when I was younger and he always seemed to walk into the room right when the kissing scene in a movie was happening, awkward! Fortunately, my dad is hard-core sci-fi, so that's all we share. Asimov is pretty safe, Heinlein can get a little risky :)

[[deleted user]]

This is such a great thread! My parents and I don't share the same taste in reading (often) but my mom is such a great fan of my writing that she eagerly critiques my stuff--even the sex scenes, when I tell her not to!

But my father won't read my books for Silhouette Nocturne because he has seen the covers and he is afraid of the sex scenes inside. I tell him that I'm perfectly innocent and that everything I write is purely a figment of my imagination.

[Cathy]

Exactly! And that image needs to work both ways - I need to imagine him as innocent as well, despite the fact that he has dated more in the almost 10 years since my mom died than I have. He's still my daddy, no matter how old we both are. But it is fun when we can share books, he's such a big part of why I read what I do and it's great to carry on that connection.

[Sabrina]

My dad and I have been trading books for years. Our tastes are very similar, and it's a good way for both of us to get new reading ideas. I introduced him to Jeanine Frost and Charlaine Harris, his latest addictions. :-) I refused to read the Twilight series because I thought it was too immature to interest me. Then my 59 year old father read the books and convinced me to give them a try. Now he and I are trying to get the rest of the family on the Twilight bandwagon.

[Rebecca (Bec)]

I tell my family what I read, my mum seems mildly interested, my dad and brother make fun of me. Mind you I never bring up the sex scenes with them.

[Melissa]

Omygosh-that's FRIGGIN HILARIOUS-you poor thing-lol,
that would be kind of disturbing In an "icky" way lol-just look
at it this way-at least he didn't read it OUT LOUD LOLOLOLOL

[Ann aka Iftcan]

My Dad wouldn't read half to 3/4 of what I read--if its written by a woman, he wouldn't touch it. I'm not sure WHY--but he just wouldn't. Sigh, I really MISS teasing him about that too, I kept telling him he was missing some great writers. He died back in Y2k in Dec. This was after a really hard year. My "baby" (he was 40) brother died from cancer, then my Aunt died also from cancer, then Daddy died. He too had cancer. All 3 had different cancers. But he just quit fighting after Tim died. And then when Aunt Ruth died, well, that was it. Actually, I miss teasing my brother too. lol, he and his wife had been married for 10 years when he died--and it wasn't til I was there 3 days before he died that she found out what his middle name was. He did something and I called him by all 3 of his names. And Nan said, "Wow, now I know why he never told anyone what his middle name was."

Sigh, enjoy your Dad's while you have them guys. They won't be around forever.

[Melissa]

Ann-I am SO SORRY for all the loss you've suffered-I too lost my dad-I was the oldest girl-and we were avid readers-I would come in from a date and there he'd be -sitting in his old ratty recliner deep in a book-he'd look up-see I was home,and go right back to his pages-he had just started a new job in a town about an hour away when he told his friend he wasn't feeling right-he was going to drop by the doc's on hos lunchbreak-he made it back to his station and dropped -massive heart attack-they brought him back in the ambulance-but exactly TWO MINUTES before we could get there-he died-alone-in a strange town where he knew no one. So sad. So enjoy them while they are here-you never know if you'll ever see them staring down at a book again.