Our Bookshelf

[Barbara]

Hi everyone!!!

I just posted a long note in the category "God of Small Things, Chapters 8-14", but my post had absolutely nothing to do with GoST. It's all about our bookshelf.

I just went over to our bookshelf, and I was not able to add shelves (by category, reason for being banned/challenged, century published, location, fiction vs. nonfiction, etc.) I don't know what I need to do to be able to make changes and additions to this bookshelf, but I didn't have any access to make any changes to the shelf.

Also, if you have a chance to look at my post in the God of Small Things discussion (it's probably the last post there) please let me know which shelves you think would be most helpful for the books in our list.

The shelf category that I will have the most difficult time adding is probably the most important for our purposes -- the reason the book was banned and/or challenged. All of the other info -- fiction vs. nonfiction, year, decade, or century of first publication, location, genre, etc., is all in the description of the book right here on goodreads.

In order for me to find out whether it was banned for social, sexual, political, religious, or all four (or any other reason) I think I'll probably have to do some further research (I could probably find it in a google search) -- so the "reason for being banned" will probably take me the longest to add to the shelf.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I have the book "100 Banned Books" so all of the books in there are divided into one of the four categories in terms of reason for being challenged. I can start out by using that book. Many of the books on our shelf are in my "100 Banned Books" book, and I can add the books that are not already on our shelf.

OK, so if someone can tell me how I can get into our bookshelf (I can see it, but I can't make changes) please let me know.

Also, for the books on our shelf that are not in my "100 Banned Books" book (i.e., The God of Small Things and Mrs. Dalloway are not in there!!) any suggestions as to where I can find the reason for the book being challenged would be much appreciated.

It may take me a while, but we will eventually have an AWESOME bookshelf!!!!

[Barbara]

I'm sorry that I haven't gotten very far with our bookshelf!!! Things have been REALLY hectic at work (I feel as though every time I turn around I have another deadline to meet) and my energy level is still pretty low.

As I'm sure I've told you all (probably 100 times already) I had to have my thyroid removed, so I depend on Synthroid, the thryoid replacement medication. Well, you have to constantly get your thyroid levels checked because even with Synthroid, your thyroid levels can change. So at the moment, my thyroid levels are WAY TOO LOW but they can only increase my Synthroid dose in small amounts. SO, I've been dealing with trying to get my work done while feeling exhausted at the same time. Thank God for Goodreads!!! This is my escape when I don't have time to leave my computer and go out, but need a break. I just come over here for a little while, then go back to my work.

Anyway, I thought I would be able to use my "100 Banned Books" for this project, because there's so much great information in there, but unfortunately only 8 of the books on our shelf are listed in "100 Banned Books" so I'm going to have to do some online research. (But the good news is that I was able to categorize all 8 of the books from "100 Banned Books.") Later this week, after my deadline, I should be able to get more of it done.

Satia told me that I may want to contact the person who entered certain books into the shelves to find out what info they have regarding the book being banned. Satia and Serena -- each of you have added quite a few books that are in there, so if you remember what information you had on those books, that would be great!!!

OK -- just wanted to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about my "librarian" responsibilities!!!

[Serena]

Hi Barbara, sorry to hear about your thyroid problem. I know it's a hard thing to deal with as my mother, 2 very close cousins of mine, and 2 aunties all have either hypo or hyper. It runs on my mom's side of family. I try to eat as much seaweed as I can get my hands on, knock on wood, I hope it never falls on me. I've seen all of then suffered through it and it's quite hard to manage.

The book shelf. I am a little confused. LOL! Please bear with me. But what is this 100 Banned Books? Can't you just add them all to the bookshelf? Am I not understanding this correctly? Probably not... hahahaha!

The books I've added to the bookshelf before were taken from couple links on banned books online. I didn't pay much attention to why they're banned. I personally like to find out for myself through reading why it's banned before I go Googling the reason.

I see you've done quite a lot on the book shelf! Thank you very much! It's much more detailed than I expected. I thought it'd just have shelves like in a bookstore, "literature", "young adults", "romance", "fantasy", "science fiction"...etc.

To tell you the truth, I am not even sure whether I can find the links I added the books from. I will need to dig a bit, I believe it was from the earlier days when Will was still around, a thread from Satia and Jamie (when I thought she was a guy, oops).

[Serena]

Hi Barbara, I found the thread where I gathered most of the books on the bookshelf.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

[Barbara]

OK, I just added shelves to four more books in the "to-read" category:

Les Fleurs du Mal (which is actually listed in english on our shelf -- The Flowers of Evil)

Go Tell it on the Mountain -- James Baldwin

Bastard Out of Carolina

Sister Carrie

I'll try to get to a few each day, until I've covered all the books in the "to-read" shelf. I've added a lot of new categories, because each book was banned for various reasons, and many of them don't fit in as neatly as the books from "100 Banned Books" -- but it will certainly be interesting to see all the different categories we have when I'm done with this!!! (and then I would LOVE to add many of the books from 100 Banned Books -- some of the books in there are really great.)

Sorry that it's taking so long, and I hope all of the categories are not too confusing!!! When it's all done, we will have a lot of fun being able to pick books based on so many different things: 1)reason for censorship; 2)century it was published; 3)country in which it was published; 4)and all the different sub-categories -- depicts vulgar language, depicts drug abuse, depicts racism, depicts eroticism, etc. 5)the "type" of book it is -- novel, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, short stories, etc.

I can't wait until it's finished!!

[Barbara]

Thanks Satia! Actually, I'm enjoying doing the research. And I like the idea of cross-referencing (I do a lot of that in my data base for my work -- it makes everything so much easier.)

This will be fun when it's all finished!!

[Barbara]

Hi everyone!! Just an update regarding our bookshelf -- I haven't been able to get to it this past week, but I am planning to do some work on our shelves this Sunday and Monday.

I just have one request of everyone in the group -- if you have added any books to the shelves (it would say your name in the "added by" section next to the book) would you please post a note on this thread or send me an email and provide me with the information on why the book was censored and/or banned, and any other info on the banning of the particular book.

THANKS!!! I hope you're all enjoying Choke. I'm hoping to get to it when I'm done with my current book (as long as Serena can promise me that it won't give me nightmares!!!!)

[Serena]

Hi Barbara, thanks for keeping up with the bookshelf, it certainly takes dedication and patience!

Hm. I finished Choke and besides one or two scenes, I did not find the book too overwhelming with horror or grossness. But then again, it does take a lot to get me grossed out. Lol! Perhaps try the first 2 chapters and get a taste and see if you'd want to continue? Just remember, Palahniuk writes about dysfunctional people, his characters aren't pretty or classy, they don't quote poems nor have afternoon tea. Lol! But his point is, there are more people like this than we think, they are all around us...

Well, I do hope you end up enjoying it! :)