Every one's Choice discussion
Book Challenges
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Banned Books Challenge
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Send the link!
Donna wrote: "I don't know about 25 but I will def join you and say maybe I will do about 5-10 I don't wanna make any more promises!!!Send the link!"
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy...
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here's my list for the year.
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
There are a bunch of others but I can't decide right now! But these are the ones I will def tackle.
Oh how pefect! I was thinking about banned books a few months ago and have been spending the last couple years catching up on classics anyway. I am going to the site right now to see how many I have actually read.
I've read 35, and have a few more on my TBR list. But I just have to say - Winnei the Pooh??? O come on!As for the challenge - I will try to do:
Beloved
The Sound and The Fury
The World According to Garp
Heart of Darkness
Their Eyes are Watching God
All the Kings Men
I've read 15 and I plan to read this year:Catch 22
A Brave New World
I have read a lot of banned books, as I have a passion for this subject area. I did quite a bit of work on it when working on my Masters in library science. I will take a look at my reading list so far for this year and see what is on there that fits the banned criteria. I do plan on reading The Grapes of Wrath and, as a companion to it, a non-fiction title about the banning of Steinbeck's book entitled, Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's the Grapes of Wrath.
thanks for the companion piece....grapes of wrath is one of the first i am going to try and read so it might be interesting to read the book on its banning...
I like looking at this list and seeing all these books I was assigned to read in high school! :) I think I might try reading Brave New World again.
Okay, so I have to admit, I didn't post in this thread after looking at the list because I am embarassed that I only read a handful of the banned books. I wont be doing 25 but I am going to try to knock out at least five during my 60 books challenge. Top picks so far:The Age of Innocence
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Canterbury Tales
Leaves of Grass
The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights
Desiree wrote: "thanks for the companion piece....grapes of wrath is one of the first i am going to try and read so it might be interesting to read the book on its banning..."You're welcome, Desiree. I probably won't get to Grapes of Wrath until this summer. When do you think you'll read it?
Colleen wrote: "Okay, so I have to admit, I didn't post in this thread after looking at the list because I am embarassed that I only read a handful of the banned books. I wont be doing 25 but I am going to try to ..."Love the Canterbury Tales, Colleen. I just ordered a new copy from Amazon. Also, for my recent birthday, I bought myself (LOL) a framed print of the pilgrims on their way to Canterbury.
Donna, I thought I had posted a list of resources in which you can explore this topic. Maybe it was somewhere else? If I don't find it, I will post it again. Anyway, I should have included Judy Blume as an excellent resource. She has been challenged many times as an author of pre-teen and teen books. A link to her blogging about her most recent encounter with censorship is http://judyblumeblog.blogspot.com/201... Her Web site is also an excellent source for reading about book censorship. Its link is http://www.judyblume.com/books.php She is the author/editor of Places I Never Meant To Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers which relates her fight against book censorship as well as other young adult authors' struggles plus original stories by these authors.
I am really looking forward to that one Kathy! I spent some extra time getting a hold of a good copy. I went to the ALA website but my banned books aren't just off of the 100 most commonly banned/challenegd books.Judy Blume should be banned I made freckle juice once trying to get rid of my freckles after reading the book and it was gross LOL! Just kidding, what are the complained about ones, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret because it talks about periods and God?
Kathy wrote: "Desiree wrote: "thanks for the companion piece....grapes of wrath is one of the first i am going to try and read so it might be interesting to read the book on its banning..."You're welcome, Desi..."I just placed a hold for a copy to be sent to my local library branch so I am waiting on it...I picked up the The Color Purplethis week and will be reading it this weekend, so i expect to start GOfW next week.
Colleen wrote: "I am really looking forward to that one Kathy! I spent some extra time getting a hold of a good copy. I went to the ALA website but my banned books aren't just off of the 100 most commonly banned/c..."At least 5 Judy Blume books that i can think of have been challenged or banned at some point. I loved
Forever when i was a teenager! I think that if she wrote that book today it probably wouldn't be at the top of the challenged list because it is almost comparable meek considering young adult books today...i just think that at the time period her books came out (mainly the 1970s-90s) the topics were still considered socially unacceptable to talk about openly.
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I agree, Desiree, that most of Judy Blume's books seem mild compared to many YA books today. I think one thing that happens with her books is that kids are used to reading the Fudge books and others in elementary school, and then when they pick up on that's meant for kids a bit older, well, you're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. LOL. However, in the most recent challenge that she wrote about in her blog (link in previous post), Forever was challenged in middle school. I thought it was funny that the parent was upset about the child reading aloud passages from the book on the school bus and Judy's response to that. What parents don't realize that their precious ones are hearing on the school bus and everywhere else.
Donna wrote: "I have to admit that I have never read anything by Judy Blume (at least I don't remember)"It's never to late to start, Donna. LOL
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Donna wrote: "Is there one I Should start with...????"Hmm, do you want to read her children's and her young adult or just young adult? The Fudge books are great fun in the children's books. Forever is a great one to start with in YA, as it's one of the most challenged.
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I will look into Forever.
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Donna wrote: "OK. SOunds good. I requested it from the library"Good girl.
I can understand certain banned books being questioned because of language/sexual content/drug and alcohol use et cetera during earlier times when such things were considered private matters. When parents get up in arms about their children being exposed to books that discuss such things it makes no sense to me. In school, okay a book being on the cirriculum is one thing but they can't stop the book being gotten a hold of! I thing a lot of parents overestimate their children's innocence, especially now a days when sex, drugs, violence is practically the norm.
I was looking over the top 100 again, my goodness have ALL of Toni Morrison's books gone straight from printing press to banned book shelf? Geez...
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And I agree...Winnie the Pooh....????
I was one of those kids reading the dirty parts in Forever with friends and I turned out ok.
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Desiree wrote: "I recently went through the ALA Top 100 Banned Books list and realized that i have read 25 or so of them...I think I will try to read another 25 this year...and then hopefully read the last 50 for ..."I just read all the posts in this thread and looked up the link for the list of banned books. I was shocked by how many were Required reading when I was in school. WOW. I personally have read 30 of them. While I may not have liked all I can not see Why they would be banned. It is a shame really.
I understand not wanting to expose children to inappropriate content and that being the descretion of that childs parent but banned for All is silly. There should be a way to make 'questionable' books not Required reading but still available for those who are allowed to read them. How hard could it be to make those books Permission based check outs at the library?
Have these same people that banned the classics gotten a look at a Typical Teen novel these days...giggle They make Judy Blume seem very prim and proper.
My guess is that people try to ban books because they like to fight. Why don't these people start a big group together and go fight MTV and Hollywood? Because it would take too much effort in time. So instead they badger their local (and very nice) librarian and school teachers. I would supply the librarians and educators with tazers and give them full authority to use them against any potential book banner.
Jeremy wrote: "My guess is that people try to ban books because they like to fight. Why don't these people start a big group together and go fight MTV and Hollywood? Because it would take too much effort in tim..."LOL, Jeremy. I like the tazers idea.
I know like all hardcore criminals got their start by reading books, that's the real source of the bad path in life *sarcasm* Books are the enemy not society, peer presure, bored and idle hands, drugs,... LOL
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The books that are the problem are the ones with the pages carved out for a secret compartment. "You put your weed in there."
Or something more valuable and less stinky, LOL
Jeremy wrote: "The books that are the problem are the ones with the pages carved out for a secret compartment. "You put your weed in there.""So, that's why my son likes to read, Jeremy. LOL
I have a confession pertaining to banned books: when I was a teenager my mother (she has, seriously tested at genius levels but not "worldly" aka. innocent to "naughty" things) and I were perusing a used book store. I have always had a thing for finding a dusty HB leather-bound or appearance of leather-bound classics. I was given permission to pick out a few things and I slipped a gorgeous HB copy of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" in between two books and got her to buy it for me unbeknownst to her. ;)
Too funny, Colleen. I haven't read that one yet.
Next D.H. Lawrence for me: Women In Love
I've had it in my hands and ready to buy on multiple occasions but then decided for something else as he is not due up for a bit in my reading cycle.
I've had it in my hands and ready to buy on multiple occasions but then decided for something else as he is not due up for a bit in my reading cycle.
Lyn, I plan to read it this year since my theme seems to be "catching up on the classics" right now. Isn't that funny how we all have some sort of system for reading books?
'Tis. Sometimes I scroll out on s sticky note the next dozen or more that I plan on reading and put it in my wallet. The list inevitably changes some but it is fun to do. It also helps to remind me which authors I've been neglecting.
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Every one's Choice
Books mentioned in this topic
Rebecca (other topics)To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)
The Call of the Wild (other topics)
Charlotte's Web (other topics)
Animal Farm (other topics)
More...
I think I will be reading these 5 first:
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Ulysses - James Joyce
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner