Books, Books and Banned Books

While visiting with my parents the other day they shared an article about Banned Book Week, Sept. 25-Oct 2.  The article was written by Betsy Towner.  Betsy got me to thinking about books. 

Books have always been some of my best friends.  I received the gift of book lover from my Mom.  She always has at least a couple of books going.  She instilled in me the love of a good book and the rules for taking care of books. 

1. Always use a bookmark
2. Never lay a book down open- it will break it's spine
3. Please don't dog-ear a page
4. Keep the cover on to protect it
5. Don't write in it

I am sure there were more rules and I know that I must have broken most of them.  But, back to Banned Book Week.  It is not what you think.  The week is to celebrate our right to read what we want.  Who are we to judge another's taste?   As I read through Ms. Towner's list I realized that I had read all but three of the banned books.  This is her list:

Too Political

1. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
2. All Quiet on the Western Front -  Erich Maria Remarque
3. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemmingway
4. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
5. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemmingway
6. Animal Farm - George Orwell
7. 1984 - George Orwell
8. Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
9. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
10. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Peter Matthiessen

Too Much Sex

1. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
2. Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
3. Ulysses - James Joyce
4. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemmingway
5. Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
6. Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
7. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
8. Peyton Place - Grace Metallous
9. Rabbit, Run - John Updike
10. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
11. Jaws - Peter Benchley
12. Forever - Judy Blume
13. The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy
14. Beloved - Toni Morrion
15. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents - Julia Alvarez

Irreligious

1. On the Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkin
3. The Last Temptation of Christ - Nikos Kazantzakis
4. Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya
5. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling

Socially Offensive

1. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Benjamin Franklin
2. The Scarlet Letter - Nathanial Hawthorne
3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
4. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
5. Brave New Worlds - Aldous Huxley
6. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
7. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
8. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
9. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
10. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
11. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
12. James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
13. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
14. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
15. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
16. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
17. Cujo - Stephen King
18. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
19. Ordinary People - Judith Guest
20. A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley

Personally I was shocked by all of the above titles.  Some were required reading in High School and some in College.  I want you to know that I plan on reading the three that I haven't as soon as possible.

 If you love books then please:
Visit your library, download a book, read a book, share a book, read a book to someone who can't read, have a child read a book to you.
And please help the American Library Association celebrate, "Banned Book Week".

You can learn more at: American Library Association