These are books that have been commonly banned over the years, and are also now in the public domain.

In other words, they are the ultimate paradox: freely available to billions on the Internet, yet still attempts are made to control them.

Some sources for information include Banned Books Online, the ALA lists of frequently banned and challenged books, and Wikipedia banned books.

For more information on what falls under public domain, consult Project Gutenberg or Wikipedia's information.

In most cases, if it was published after 1926, DO NOT ADD IT HERE.
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61 books · 60 voters · list created April 14th, 2009 by John (votes) .
67 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


John 1924 books
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Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3387 books
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Bettie 15681 books
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Mir 15072 books
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Joe 102 books
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Ricki 5237 books
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Tom 3698 books
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ღ Carol jinx~☆~☔ʚϊɞ 4178 books
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Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Jasmine (new)

Jasmine I LOVE all of these books


message 2: by Joe (new)

Joe some heavy reading


message 3: by [deleted user] (last edited Apr 25, 2009 09:18PM) (new)

Why on earth did anyone want to ban Mark Twain's books? beyond me!

Now I could see Lady Chatterly's Lover being banned! I only read about ten pages but that was enough for me!


message 4: by John (new)

John Alice wrote: "Why on earth did anyone want to ban Mark Twain's books? beyond me!"

They've been frequently accused of being racist. The last paragraph in the "Reception" section at this link may be instructive:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventur...

Of course, there is a strong argument that these were some of the most strongly anti-racist books being written at the time.


message 5: by Greyweather (last edited Aug 17, 2009 01:52PM) (new)

Greyweather Removed the following books for not being public domain:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Lolita
Lord of the Flies
The Satanic Verses
Mutmassungen über Jakob / Speculations about Jakob
Maurice: A Novel
Too Far Afield
The Water-Method Man


message 6: by John (new)

John Burns Surely 1984 isnt public domain either?


message 7: by Greyweather (last edited Aug 17, 2009 01:31PM) (new)

Greyweather Killthepopular wrote: "Surely 1984 isnt public domain either?"

It is not public domain in the United States or EU but it is public domain in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Japan, Jordan, the Philippines, China, and all other states that use the Berne Convention as the basis for their copyright law (basically up to 50 years after the author's death for printed works).

It will also become public domain in India in the year 2011, for those who are curious.

This applies to all of George Orwell's work published during his lifetime.

The books I removed are not public domain in any country under international copyright law.


message 8: by [deleted user] (new)

Why on earth would Adam Smith's 'A Wealth of Nations' be banned? I had no idea there were so many Liberals around when Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were banned. ha ha


message 9: by Meg (new)

Meg i was really upset when i saw you had the draft of sunset moon. i hope you know this was stolen from stephanie meyer's desk and posted on the internet. i do want to read the whole thing, but what kind of a monster would steal a half written book and put it on the internet?!?!?!


message 10: by Meg (new)

Meg I LUV all these books!



message 11: by Meg (new)


message 12: by Abi (new)

Abi if anyone hasn't read JUST LISTEN by Sarah Dessen, go for it... its one of the BEST books i have ever read... READ it and send me some emails on what good books to read...


message 13: by Sarah (new)

Sarah Meg wrote: "i was really upset when i saw you had the draft of sunset moon"

lol, I think you mean "Midnight Sun"/
And it is a good book to read- it teaches girls how utterly CREEPY Edward really is.



message 14: by Anony-miss (new)

Anony-miss a-non-y-miss Hmmm. Twilight? I know, lots of "I love" and "I hate" controversy .. but really, a best book for a teenage girl?


message 15: by Morgan (new)

Morgan i wouldnt really say it (twilight) teaches young girls any valuable lessons, really i think it does a bit of the oppisite sometimes.


message 16: by Abi (new)

Abi i simply love anything by sarah dessen:)


message 17: by Regina (new)

Regina Some books on this list is a very impressive literary piece


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