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Banned Books Week

Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:43 am
by Slava
Banned Books Week started on Sunday. Go get a banned book and make a stand for fREADom!

It always amazes me how silly people can be about reading. Here's one list: http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/100 ... rprise-you

Re: Banned Books Week

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:43 am
by Philip Hudson
Books have always been banned in some way or another. Mark Twain was banned. I might have gone along with it since I beileve "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is his only book of genius.

Re: Banned Books Week

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 2:23 pm
by Perry Lassiter
But that was the book that was banned!

Re: Banned Books Week

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 3:30 pm
by Philip Hudson
Perry: Yep. That's why a can't support book banning.

Re: Banned Books Week

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:30 am
by bnjtokyo
I am disappointed by this list. It does not make clear whether any of these books are currently banned and, if so, why. The ban on "Ulysses" ended in the US in 1934, 80 years ago. "Call of the Wild" banned by the Nazis in 1933 and Yugoslavia, which ceased to exist how long ago? Ancient history. We might as well list the books banned by the Inquisition.

If we are going to encourage people to read banned books and think for themselves, provide us with list of books currently banned and the justification for it.

Re: Banned Books Week

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:42 am
by Slava
The CSM list was meant to illustrate book banning over time. Here is the Banned Books Week site, with current fights.

The American Library Association has a yearly breakdown of challenged books here.

Re: Banned Books Week

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2013 1:01 am
by Philip Hudson
Some of my cousins weren't exactly illiterate; they just didn't like to read. At eight years of age I tried to read Erskine Caldwell's "God's Little Acre" to them. They wanted me to find the rape scene and after I read that to them they lost interest. The whole book enthralled me. Was I too young to read it?

I also read the short story, "The Lottery" when I was 9 years old. The current book, "The Hunger Games", which I found too dull to finish, is reminiscent of "The Lottery". "Lady Chatterley's Love" was lost on me. Here again, dull. Steinbeck - I devoured his books as soon as I could. He is my favorite 20th century writer. "Lolita" – sick and dull.

"The Book Thief" was recently assigned to be read by Junior High readers. I was asked to review it. It was riveting. Is it suitable for high school freshmen? It's about time someone wrote a book like that that would appeal to a high school freshman.

I regularly read the Bible. Some of it is a little racy. Don't let anyone tell you that the Song of Solomon is written in some kind of code and that it is really very innocent when rightly understood. It is a love poem, a great one.

Nobody banned my books and I survived.