Just a quick mention that September 24—October 1 is the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week.
I’ve read most of the books on the frequently challenged list. Actually, I read most of them in school (English major.) It boggles my mind to think of anyone trying to ban them. I can imagine people not wanting to read the books themselves. I can imagine parents possibly having concerns about their own child reading some of them (apparently, most of the challenges were from parents.) But I can’t imagine someone deciding that no one needs to read or study those books. The rest of us might feel just as strongly that our child *needs* to read them.
There are so many worse influences out there than books.
Here are twenty of the list of banned and challenged classics:
1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
Here are the top 10 most challenged books for 2010:
2010: 1) And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson; 2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie; 3) Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley; 4) Crank, by Ellen Hopkins; 5) The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins; 6) Lush, by Natasha Friend; 7) What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones; 8) Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich; 9) Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie; 10) Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
American libraries were faced with 4,660 challenges over the past 10 years. Here’s a link to the most common reasons.
I’ve thought about the way I feel as a reader when I think about banning books. But I’ve recently wondered how the authors of the books challenged in 2010 feel. Were they surprised? Defiant? Concerned? The books I write are definitely not provocative, but I’d hate to think that I couldn’t write a provocative book.
Read any challenged or banned books lately?
So many of my favourite books make these links. So many of them opened my mind as a teenager and made me look at the world in a new way. I learned to think more deeply and ask more questions. I have many challenged books in my class. I read some of them aloud to my kids. The next book up is The Giver which is often given a hard time. It’s such a beautiful and powerful book!
Elizabeth – Thanks for calling attention to Banned Books Week. It’s so important, I think, to keep in mind that new ideas, different ways of thinking about things, and other points of view help us grow as a people. If you ban books, you stifle that growth. And that’s just the least dangerous thing that happens…
I have always thought banning books was one of the worst social atrocities. Literature that has something to say about humanity and human behavior can be banned, yet what is considered entertainment in some video games and films is not banned.
Elizabeth, stop by my blog if you get a chance. I have an award for you.
The moment a book is banned, I really want to read it. I think this whole book banning thing has the reverse effect to what parents or those who issued the complaint actually want. So ridiculous!
It’s frustrating that some people try to dictate what others should be allowed to read. As parents, they have the right to control their own children, but even that strikes me as ill-advised. My mother never stopped me from reading anything, and I never censored my kids’ reading material, either. How else can we expect people to use their gray matter without stimulating it with thought-provoking materials?
Hi Elizabeth – interesting books and ideas .. as you say – rather extraordinary bannings.
Oh Lady Chatterley’s Lover .. when it was unbanned I found it tucked away in my parents’ books .. no idea why!!! Yes I was young and I enjoyed it!
The ones that worry me are the politically correct ones that get banned or stopped .. eg Helen Bannerman’s books eg the tales of Little Black Sambo .. (my post on Artists – 2nd July)
or even worse changed to be politically correct like Thomas the Tank Engine ..
Talk about propaganda .. maybe that’s too strong .. but honestly we’re way too sensitive and this is England with its huge cultural diaspora .. banning the golliwog in shops, and on the orange marmalade labels ..
I’m sure most of us just get on with it .. and accept when we’re in Rome do as the Romans do ..
That’s enough from me for one day! Cheers Hilary
I always get a good laugh over half of the books people try to ban. Some of them are just plain silly!!
The thought of writing a book that will one day be challenged intrigues me. Honestly, I’d find it an honor to write a “banned” book. Not that I’m going out with that intent, but if it happened, I would find it very interesting :)
Happy Wednesday!
Jen
When I was a youngster a minister told me I was too young to read the Bible. Guess what I read every night under my covers with a flashlight. Only later did my mom say it wasn’t necessary as she would happily have read it with me.
Maybe I got more out of it under the covers :0)
I’ve read about half the list! I think banned books is one of the stupidest things one can waste their time on.
I am always astonished at the books people want to ban.
You should try “The Creature From Jekyll Island”. I don’t know if it’s still on the banned list, but it used to be, anyway. A jaw dropping and informative read.
Xan–Nothing incites a child like being told they can’t do something. Or read something.
Hilary–Lady Chatterley is on the list, too–in the top 50, I think.
And, good point. From what I see, challenged books are challenged on *both* sides–the very conservative and the liberal.
Jemi–And both my children read The Giver in 4th grade. :)
Margot–Then it starts going the way of Fahrenheit 451 or something…
GigglesandGuns–Exactly. It just makes us want to read the book more!
Maryann–That bothers me, too. That the focus should be on books!
Thanks for the award!
Stephen–I think there’s just one or two titles I haven’t read. Makes me want to read them…
Susan–That’s what gets me. I think parents have the right (however misguided) to choose what they think is best for their kids. But I don’t think they can choose what’s best for *my* kids.
Jen–I shake my head over them, I really do. And I think you’re right–it would be an honor to write a book that might be challenged.
Betty–Thanks for the tip! I’ll put it on my TBR list. :)
Sadly, I just learned that my most local bookstore won’t be carrying my novel because of an ‘intense scene’ in it. I’m shocked, saddened, and hurt. I never would have thought of my novel as over the top for teens.
I have read about half of the twenty books, and To Kill a Mockingbird and The Color Purple are favourites of mine.
I am not sure I´d want to read them all, but I certainly want to decide for myself.
And like Hilary, I am strongly against banning or censoring old children´s books because they are no longer politically correct. Let children read them, and tell them why things have changed.
Ha. I love checking out lists of banned books so I can figure out what some people don’t want other people to read. Anyway, it’s practically a compliment to get on a banned books list. It guarantees interest :)
I’ve read quite a lot of banned books. For a while, when I was young, I used the Vatican’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum as my bookstore shopping list.
I think banning books is meaningless. If I don’t like a book,there’s no reason I should refuse other people to read it.
Some books have been banned by political regimes (e.g. Dr Zhivago was banned in the Soviet Union). That’s hardly a surprise.
Some books can be touchy today, such as Little Black Sambo, or Robinson Crusoe. But with a proper historical reference I think these books are still readworthy >:)
Cold As Heaven
Funny, most of the books on the list of twenty are movies – kids can just go watch the movie if they can’t get the book!
Heather–I’m shocked to hear that! That would make me feel sad, too…and, well, I probably wouldn’t know how to react to that. Part of me would probably want to call the media, actually (and I’m not someone who enjoys being on television, for sure.) Particularly since it’s the library’s banned books week. I’m so sorry to hear that, Heather.
Callie–I think it has the opposite effect than the challengers think, for sure! Good publicity for the books.
Julia–Me too.
Dorte–Those are great books. And they’re *disturbing* books, but I think if we’re being disturbed, we’re thinking.
Cold As Heaven–That’s one way to find some interesting books to read! :)
Yes, there are a lot of politically incorrect books on the expanded list. Some Kipling, too, I’d think.
Alex–Good point! I hadn’t thought about that. And I wonder if their parents would even think twice. Sigh.
Out of the 5 books I’ve read (all because of school) from the selection of banned and challenged classics, I only liked To Kill a Mockingbird. I’d be happy if I never read the other four, and especially if they were no longer forced on anyone else, but I wouldn’t ban them. I just think there is so much better stuff to use for English classes. Though maybe it was my teacher’s fault for dropping the ball on explaining what writing lessons I should have been learning from them despite my distaste for the stories themselves.
I do need to read some more of the other books, but it’ll be because I chose to for studying themes and style. And if I can’t get through them, I can give myself permission to put them down and pick up something else instead.
The one that made me laugh this year was the first Sherlock Holmes novel, because of it’s shoddy treatment of Mormons. (I’m a Mormon myself, and find the errors in the book to be rather funny since they’re so far off the mark.)
Honestly, I don’t think any book should be banned. This doesn’t mean people shouldn’t use discretion in their reading, though! But let an individual decide.
I don’t understand challenging books because it contains something you don’t want to read. If I read about something I don’t like from religion to sex to abuse, I just put the book away and don’t recommend it others. Not my cup of tea, but I realize that someone somewhere (at the very least the author) connected with the subject material.
If we all agreed what a beige world it would be.