Ahhhh, I broke down and ordered a book that's a parody of Lillian Braun's "The Cat Who......." series which I had read a few years ago.  Not much info that I could find, but definitely supposed to make fun of the book series.  Boy, was I surprised when it arrived today and sender has a sticky note stuck to front saying it's XXX rated and she couldn't even finish the first chapter!   Agggghhhhhh-- I just glanced at the first page and the cats' names are even filthy names!  So sorry I even bothered to order it--- soooo I reposted it with the "x rated" tag added.  

I've been fooled, but not in quite that way. Wow. Too bad that person didn't tell you when you ordered it. I helped my mom pick out some books I thought she'd like at a library sale a while back. She said one of them was "just dirty" and had bad words all in it. I'm thinking it dropped a lot of F-bombs. She threw it in the trash. At first I cringed, because I was thinking how somebody else would want that book. Then I thought more about it. If she thought it was only fit for the trash, why would she want somebody else to read it?

Good for you on tagging it for other people to see. Sometimes I see a book that has an interesting title, but there's no info about it. I won't order it.

I don't know if the book you received falls under erotica or pornography, but pornography is not allowed to be posted. From the rules page: Pornography (sex manuals and erotica are allowed, hardcore pornography is not allowed)

well, I decided to be adult about it and read the first chapter last night.  So far I would not call it X rated, simply dirty-minded, and I'm very, very conservative. May have to go back and adjust the tags.

I was in a used bookstore a while back. One book intrigued me: it had a cover printed to look like a grocery bag (plain brown wrapper). As I was beginning to leaf through it, this "person" came up and tried to explain to me that it was porno. Only problem is he used language that I wouldn't use with my best friend - much less in public. Oh well, I guess that makes it simple:

If I like it - it's erotica

If I don't - its pornography and should be banned.

wc

It was always my understanding that erotica used only words--so most books.  Porn has pictures.

Sex manuals may have pictures to instruct or illustrate a point--porn has pictures for entertainment/arousal purposes only.

I can't even imagine what could be considered porn that would be posted.  Most porn is magazines, and they aren't postable anyway.

Of course I'm an erotica reader, anyway, so have very open-minded tastes and am in no way easily offended by any dirty words.

Erotica has pictures. There are lots of erotica photography books. Some of them are explicit.

I guess one person's erotica is another person's porn.  My guess would be if the story actually has a plot, it is erotica.  If it has no plot and is just descriptions of hard core sex, it's porn.

I'll keep that in mind, Sarah.

Two books that seem to fool people, as I've found them in the children's section in used book stores and thrift stores a number of times, are

Nancy Clue and the Not-So-Nice Nurse  (1573442267)   (spotted twice)

and

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. (0452266564)  ( found four+ times)

Another thing to remember:  one person's porn is another person's light reading.

Erotica has pictures. There are lots of erotica photography books. Some of them are explicit.

I've seen nude art, and even erotic art.  Maybe it's in the way the pictures are marketed?

Another thing to remember:  one person's porn is another person's light reading.

I like the way Whitney thinks.

Glenda > Why is the sender responsible for telling the requestor what kind of book it is? Obviously in the case of poor Jeanne, she didn't do her homework and paid gravely for that mistake with erotica! :P 

But I would just assume the requestor knew what they were requesting. I picked up some erotica for cheap at my library's book sale a few years ago just to post on PBS and didn't bother to clarify their choice with them. 

And I say that as someone who picked up the Wicked book by Gregory Maguire and was shocked by adult content in it. No one to blame but me for not doing more research on the book before I started reading it. 

Well, Erin, I did "do my research" before ordering the book and nothing I read mentioned erotica, "naughty" language, etc.  A description of a book as a "parody" does not mean to me that the book will be a  "dirty" version.

So would that FIFTY SHADES OF GREY book be porn or erotica, according to PBS standards? Just wondering ... (By the way, I have not read it and I don't plan too.)

So would that FIFTY SHADES OF GREY book be porn or erotica, according to PBS standards? Just wondering ... (By the way, I have not read it and I don't plan too.)

Fifty Shades has an erotica genre classification here at PBS.  However, as someone who reads erotica, I would not call it erotica, but perhaps steamy romance (but a poorly written one).  Just because something has a little light bondage does not mean it's automatically erotica, and the sex scenes hardly qualified with all the purple prose about how she felt "down there" and how he released her "inner goddess".

Huh, is it purposefully hiding its true nature, Jeanne? I just checked on Amazon and it has one star reviews across the board who say it is poorly written porn with lots of foul language. 

But, even still, I'm curious as to why Glenda would think that the sender should have wander you? Not that she's implying the sender tried to trick you, I'm sure, just that I think it's odd to expect a sender to warn you about the nature of a book when I would assume the requestor knew what they were getting themselves into. That's all. 

No, Erin, I just find it funny that the sites I did check (not Amazon) didn't reveal anything I might question. And, no, I didn't expect the sender to "warn" me.

When I write a short review here on PBS, I try to include things that others might find objectionable, especially in YA selections which often have no mention that though they are listed as "YA", might not be appropriate for 12-14 year olds for example. And here at PBS, there are a lot of homeschoolers who are looking for suggestions for their advanced readers so even though they would normally be OK with YA, they do appreciate the warnings I include.

Erin, I didn't mean to sound like I thought it was the sender's responsibility. Of course it wasn't. They may not have even read the book. 

I just meant it was unfortunate that it didn't happen that way and save the OP some trouble. Sometimes we get lucky with circumstances, sometimes we don't. 

Gayle,  I read most of 50 Shades before giving up.  It's horrible - and I don't mean the general subject matter.

It's trite, boring, surprisingly "vanilla" and badly written.

You haven't missed anything!

MaryF

OMG Thanks Jeanne G. you just made my day I cracked up at that description.  LOL not to be rude but did you read the discription here or was it updated later?  Because these quotes jumped out at me "her beheaded body has been discovered in the men's room of a gay bar in Lower Manhattan." "his Siamese cats Ying-Ton and Poon-Tang" "a sex-starved suburban housewife" With out ever reading anything by this autor those three quotes would have had me thinking this book was not for the faint of heart.  I think your right in a way though I would never have assumed a parody of the Cat who series would be in any way shape or form an erotica.  I just wouldn't expect that, but if I didn't know what the cat who series was and I read this description I would think it was a raunchy parody.  

It does has bad reviews on here on one of the editions that say its pornographic.  Most reviews on here didn't even give it any stars.  Did the edition you were looking at not have reviews here?  Sometimes that does happen and It would help if PBS linked all the editions of the same book so the reviews were on all of them not just the edition that person reviews.  http://www.paperbackswap.com/Cat-Who-Killed-Robert-Kaplow/review/1932407391/

I can't say I've ever had this problem though I've not gotten a parody since they national lampons did the twilight parody.  It was my first parody and it sucked so I decided to stay away from parody's.      

Also on a side note I can see my brother getting a cat and naming it Poon-Tang, sadly!