Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion
2017 Read Harder Challenge
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Task #16: Read a book that has been banned or frequently challenged in your country
Teresa wrote: "Imo, if you are lucky enough to live in a country that doesn't routinely challenge or ban books, you're free to read anything that's been challenged, however few times that may be. I'm in Utah, USA..."Books in Britain just are not challenged in the way they are in America, I don't think America realises how odd it seems to us that challenges are made against Harry Potter, Eleanor and Park or And Tango makes three, to name a few.
Ultra wrote: "I don't think America realises how odd it seems to us that challenges are made against Harry Potter, Eleanor and Park or And Tango makes three, to name a few...."Oh, we realize how odd it is- at least, some of us do. That's why we've got lumps on our foreheads from hitting our heads on walls in frustration. :/
I went with Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood for this one. I actually make it a point to read challenged/banned books every year and hadn't got this one yet. My sister bought it to put in her school classroom and I snagged it before she took it to work. I'm glad I did... for anyone who hasn't read it, I recommend it.
Coco wrote: "As I am from Germany and someone mentioned it before, we do not ban books here unless it is nazi and racism hate speech (and I really do not want to read any current hate or Holocaust denial etc) A..."The only one I really know about is Mephisto by Klaus Mann, which couldn't be published in the 60es or 70es. I'm not sure whether it's actually been banned though.
Lorryn wrote: "I'm in the U.S and I feel like the possibilities are endless. I am reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It's been on my TBR for a while now ."Thank You! I looked up Thirteen Reasons Why after reading your comment. My library had it and I read it in one sitting today! Such a good read, now I want others to read it.
For this one I plan on reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, as it has been on my TBR for a while.
I just finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indianand it was really good. Since it's a young adult book so it was a pretty quick read - perfect for my crazy busy season life right now. And I felt like even though it's a young adult book, I really connected with it.
Scott wrote: "Lorryn wrote: "I'm in the U.S and I feel like the possibilities are endless. I am reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It's been on my TBR for a while now ."Thank You! I looked up [book:Thi..."
Scott wrote: "Lorryn wrote: "I'm in the U.S and I feel like the possibilities are endless. I am reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It's been on my TBR for a while now ."
Thank You! I looked up [book:Thi..."
I agree: it was a fantastic read.
I finally found a few in Denmark. Fanny Hill was banned until 1965. Two danish biographies has been challenged by the military because they feared that they would reveal military secrets and endanger the state. And finally the book I have chosen, Katamaranen by Bent Haller, was removed from the school libraries in a part of Denmark called Thy, because a group of kids in the book set a school on fire and the school boards feared that it would incite similar episodes. I think that is quite funny and I adore Bent Haller, but haven't read Katamaranen, so I choose that one.
I finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I felt like I really connected with the character, and for all the obstacles thrown at him I felt really uplifted at the end. I'm glad it was on the list for the United States.
I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for this category. It was the 5th most challenged book in the US for 2015.The US has so many options for challenged books, but I chose this one because it's been near the top of my "to read" stack for quite a while, and I figured I had to remedy the fact that I had two copies of the same book but had never read it.
My online publication coach provided a hotlink in her blog to "Fanny Hill" by John Cleland, published in 1749. She cited it as an example of great written English language you might want copy or practice. I bought the Amazon Kindle ebook. The art reproductions can be viewed better on Kindle for PC. Not only are the drawings graphic porn, but the sexual memoir writer must be a woman writing under a male sponsor's name to get published. I would not expect to find the book in your local public library, but who knows?https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
^John Cleland was actually a man writing under his own name, although there has been some speculation that he was gay. Due to it being part of the public domain, it can be downloaded legally for free on amazon. https://www.amazon.ca/Memoirs-Fanny-G...
Also, my public library has a number of copies of Fanny Hill, so I'm sure a few folks around here would be able to get their hands on a copy.
Fanny Hill os easily found at danish libraries. But we rarely ban literature (though this exact book was banned in Denmark until 1965).
Yay, Denmark! Nothing like the States. I think the only place that bans more easily are theocratic or autocratic states.
Theresa wrote: "I've been intrigued by the comments in this discussion about how rare it is to ban books in some other countries. Is the US really so much worse on this front than everyone else? Maybe we are. But I too latched onto the "challenged" part of this prompt."Yes, it seems so. I have never heard of parents (or anyone) really challenging books read in schools, either (or anywhere else, for that matter). In fact one book routinely read by 8th or 9th graders includes all kinds of stuff that would probably get it challenged in the US. Lot of swearing and sexual innuendo, it is a realistic war novel after all. (As a sidenote, parents rarely wonder if some book is "appropriate" for their teenagers or read books in advance. Children borrow books from the library without any adult supervision.) There simply is no discussion about whether or not books are appropriate or should they be banned.
There were maybe 3-4 book trials in the 1960's, maybe one or two of them I could say was banned for a while. I actually have one but I'm not sure I really want to read it. I get bored when reading descriptive sex scenes in modern books, they don't really get any interesting if the book is older.
I guess I might pick one of the over 1000 books that were removed from libraries and bookstores after WWII when the Allied Control Commission demanded it, they were mainly books that criticised the Soviet Union, some quite accurately (I've read one). But many of them might be hard to find, as they are so old.
Most of our book controversies have been political, thanks to our neighbour. First it was Russia censoring all kinds of national literature, then it was the government and publishers against communist writings (after a failed coup d'etat and a civil war against a democratically elected legal government with the help of a foreign power), then came the war years, and then the fine line we had to walk during the Cold War.
I decided that killing two birds with one stone, I'm going with The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer. It was banned in Canada for a whole year (apparently a government minister got it banned for obscenity without ever reading the book). And it counts as a book about war.
Yeah, most people that ban books never actually read them.
I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and I really recommend it for this challenge. To add to the discussion about how ridiculous banning or challenging books is: This book was challenged for having about 5 swear words in its nearly 300 pages and having an atheist as a protagonist. Despite being one of the few accurate representations of mental disability where we aren't made to pity the character, that was enough to ruffle parent's feathers and make them feel their teenagers couldn't be exposed to such "traumatic material".
Yea, it doesn't make sense to me either.
Katie wrote: "that was enough to ruffle parent's feathers and make them feel their teenagers couldn't be exposed to such "traumatic material"."I can understand if swear words and traumatic events are not wanted in children's books (let's say for kids aged 12 and under) but when they are teenagers they should be learning to deal with difficult issues. This sounds even more weird to me because I am used to a society where parents are usually pleased if their teenagers are reading "adult" fiction. No one cares about any swear words, kids hear them from TV all the time, in several languages even.
I'm in Utah and I was turned in to Child Protective Services for getting my 15 y. o. a library book on sexual safety and anatomy.
And I went to school with people who had left home when they were 16 (some only 15) to attend a school in another town... So basically they lived weeks, sometimes also weekends, without any parental/adult supervision. They could have bought/borrowed and read any book they wanted!
Teresa wrote: "I'm in Utah and I was turned in to Child Protective Services for getting my 15 y. o. a library book on sexual safety and anatomy."What the what. The people in other country's jaws just hit the floor I am sure!
Katie wrote: "The people in other country's jaws just hit the floor I am sure!"Not really, we are used to strange news from the US. That doesn't surprise me at all. Maybe if it had happened in some other, more liberal state but not when it's Utah.
I'm just shaking my head grinning. It doesn't even surprise me that much. Seriously - Harry Potter was banned. I'm currently reading the second book (in Jim Kay's lovely illustrated edition) to my 6 y.o. and we are both loving it.
Olivia wrote: "I think I'm going to read Lolita. The National Archives of Australia had a banned books exhibition in 2013. There's some info on the banned books on this blog. http://blog.naa.gov.au/banned/"Thanks for this list, I was trying to find something Australia-specific!
Im in the UK and have just started reading Lady Chatterleys Lover. I dont normally read classics so this is going to be a challenge for me
Katie wrote: "I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and I really recommend it for this challenge. To add to the discussion about how ridiculous banning or challenging bo..."
This is my choice for this category too, but there are way too many options. It's bad for my bank account, but nothing makes me purchase a book faster than a challenge/ban.
This brochure is still floating around my library from last September. There's lots of good stuff here.
I read 1984, which has been frequently challenged and banned in the U.S. for being immoral, depressing, and pro-Communist. Never underestimate the ability of people to completely miss the point.
Jennifer wrote: "I read 1984, which has been frequently challenged and banned in the U.S. for being immoral, depressing, and pro-Communist. Never underestimate the ability of people to completely miss t..."LOL, and has it every been more a reflection of reality than it is now
As others have said, book challenging in the UK just isn't a thing. I studied To Kill a Mockingbird for GCSE (most of the rest of the year did Of Mice and Men) and Color Purple for A level and Brave New World, Animal Farm and Beloved were on the recommended wider reading list for A level as well. When I found out about book challenges and which books get challenged in the US I could imagine that the syllabus I studied would make some of the book challengers's heads explode!I'm going to have another go at Lady Chatterly and Lolita, which I've tried before and not managed to finish, if not, I'll take a look at some of the books that Ireland has banned at various points and see if any of them might work for me.
My choice for books banned in Malaysia:1) The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie - for criticism of Islam
2) The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy - contain 'sadistic material' and a 'threat to morality'
Ellie wrote: "I'm from Germany and we don't ban or challenge books very often (lastest and basically only example is American Psycho which was banned from 1995 - 2001), unless they contain nazi-propaganda or exp..."Good idea, thanks, Ellie! This book is on my TBR-list for ages. I'll read it for this prompt too. I don't live in Germany, I live in France, but fortunately I have never heard of any banned books in France. Let's say my country is Europe...
I'm currently reading 1984, so I think I'll go with that.
I'm going with "Annie on My Mind" which also completes the LGBTQ+ romance challenge. It was already on my TBR list and I had picked up a copy a long time ago at a library book sale. It's a knock out in all arenas!
I read In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, which fits in the spirit of the task but maybe not the exact intent. When the hardback was published, a former governor of South Dakota (because the book accused him of rape) and an FBI agent (because the book accuses him of falsifying evidence etc) took the author and publisher to court and the paperback and foreign editions were on hold for ten years. It deals with clashes between the FBI and Native Americans, which seems timely to me in terms of understanding more of the background to the present protests.For the Europeans - though not banned in Europe, the intro pointed out that the lawsuit specifically postponed foreign language editions and that the trial of Leonard Peltier was something that people in Europe were more aware of/interested in than Americans. So the challenge to this book in America prevented Europeans from reading it.
Decided to use The Witches for this task, since I just read it in my IRL book club. I had no idea it had been banned or challenged, but apparently it's in the Top 100 books challenged according to the ALA - who knew!
I read And Tango Makes Three, a picture book about two male penguins who fall in love. A sweet story, and a nice one to add to my son's collection. Sad that it has been frequently challenged in the United States.
I really wanted to use Ursula K. Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness for this, but I'm having trouble finding information about it being banned or challenged in the U.S. from a reliable source.
For this, I'm reading Fahrenheit 451. I'm teaching it to my students, so they can realize the importance on thinking and being an individual.
Thanks to majority of the people on this list, I have discovered so many books that have piqued my curiosity- thus, my TBR list overflows...lolI can't wait to start reading some of these books. Thanks, you guys!!!!
I read Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. My adolescence is WAY behind me, but reading this brought back a lot of memories about those awkward years. It was one of the most frequently challenged books of the 1990s and still made it onto a list of 100 most frequently challenged books for the 2000s. However, it had slipped to number 99, so maybe parents—who I assume are the ones challenging it, not their children—have become more accustomed to frank discussions about the transition from childhood to adulthood. Or else they've found new books to challenge that pushed this way down the list. Anyway, it was a quick and enjoyable read.
A bit of background for the non-US readers: "Jim Crow" refers to laws and practices enforcing segregation of blacks and whites. Jim Crow laws have all been repealed. I live in North Carolina, USA. To find a book for the challenge, I searched Google for "Banned Books NC", and found a list of books banned from prison inmates in NC This list includes The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
I cannot express how much I wish I were making this up.
I'm reading Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings of Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales - I came across it looking for poetry collections on Overdrive and will probably use it for the within 100 miles prompt, but it's also been banned in Arizona schools. I'm Canadian so I don't know whether Americans are better informed, but I'd never heard of this guy. And it nicely compliments my reading about the AIM groups as well.
Decided on one of my very favorites Slaughterhouse-Five because with the news these days I keep thinking of it. I don't double dip, but it would also qualify as a book about war and (for me and many others) a book we are rereading.
Finished
by Sylvia Plath-- 4 Stars.WOW- I just love when you finally read a classic and it's nothing like you imagined in the very best way.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Being from the UK I also struggled with this task. I've gone with "last exit to Brooklyn" which was challenged and part of an obscenity trial in the UK when it was first published.
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge
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I think, I might just read something that was banned during the Nazi Regime, instead.