Ah, the pearl-clutching shockers of bygone generations...

The fine people at Entertainment Weekly recently put together a list of 24 Classic "Steamy" Books. The list is worth clicking through for the vintage covers alone, but some of the quotes are great, too. Wordcandy staffer Megan was named after the heroine of Steamy Book #15, Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds, which she's never read. (Neither have I, but my mother tells me it was my great-grandmother's favorite book, and the Wikipedia plot summary makes it look horrendously bad.) Anyway, Meg is currently on vacation, but I'm looking forward to showing her the featured McCullough quote the minute she gets back:

"Not, not tonight. On my mouth, Ralph! Kiss my mouth as if we were lovers!"

"Mary, I'm a priest! I can't!"

Heh. Yeah, Meg still hasn't forgiven me for mendaciously assuring her that Kathleen Winsor's 1944 novel Forever Amber (which was inexplicably left off EW's list) was "totally readable", but that's just too good to pass up.