'The Blackboard Jungle" was a forbidden fruit book for me at age 11, my Father had it hidden on top of his wardrobe so I read it on Saturday afternoons when the parents went to the footy. It was a fairly mature theme for a child but none the less a little more intelectual for me than my mother's "Mills and Boon" and "True Confessions". After that, I don't think much surprised me. Access to decent literature was a problem in my tender years.
In later years i seem to have skimmed many different genres and read so many books and there are so many I havn't read. I recall 'The Carpetbaggers" kept me rivetted for a couple of days, at work, I couldn't put it down.
Recently I enjoyed 'Billy' by Pamela Stephenson, also i couldn't put 'Angela's Ashes' down (I mean the book).
This thread has made me caste my mind back and I have read heaps of books but then again there are heaps i havn't read.