Basically Books! discussion

The last week of September this year is banned books week, celebrating our right to read what we like and not have censorship imposed on us.

So I thought it'd be interested for any who feel like participating to challenge themselves to read between one and five books (between now and X-mas '11) that have been challenged - attempts to ban them have been made at some point in the past.

You can find lists of books on the net in various places, but some example sites are:

http://www.banned-books.org.uk/all
http://www.banned-books.com/bblista-i...
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy...

There are lots of books ranging from classics to children's tales featuring homosexual heroes / heroines. Even Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and The Hunger Games are on the lists! So there's plenty of choice for fun, interesting reads.

Any book that has ever been challenged counts.

Personally I'm going to try for three and see how I go from there.

1.
2.
3.

I've inadvertently read quite a few of those lol. XD

Same here. I've got yet others on my TBR list!

My plan atm is:

Madame Bovary
Anne Frank's diary (I'm even going to attempt it in Dutch!)
TBA

These books were really banned? Half of these are sitting on my bookshelf - feel quite naughty! :P

I'll try 4

His Dark Materials trilogy. (3 for the price of 1)

1984

Well, with a lot of the recent ones someone tried to get them banned in certain schools or libraries usually for racism or being sexually explicit... or against their religion.

With ones that were published a long time ago, some of them were actually taken off the market completely. I think Mein Kampf is the only one where they still don't publish it.

Rea wrote: "Well, with a lot of the recent ones someone tried to get them banned in certain schools or libraries usually for racism or being sexually explicit... or against their religion.

With ones that were..."

I love the witchcraft ones! America banned Harry Potter. Those kids don't know what they're missing. XD

I read Madame Bovary in High school and I hated it XD I guess Flaubert is not for me. I had no idea it was a banned book :O

I'l try to read three!! But I'll pick later, now I'd love to have a nap.

"Harry Potter is the devil!!!"
There's a vid on Youtube somewhere of a woman actually saying that and telling all her young Christian followers that they have sinned by reading it!

...
...
:/

Also Jeshu, I fully expect it to be a dull ride! :P But I have to read it anyway so it's all good.

OMG! I'd love to know what Voldemort is then! :P Haha, oooh, all them Christian people burning in Hell. I may go just to watch! XD

Rea wrote: "Well, with a lot of the recent ones someone tried to get them banned in certain schools or libraries usually for racism or being sexually explicit... or against their religion.

With ones that were..."

But I actually want to read Mein Kampf, I mean we kind of had to study it at school cos of history! So I sort of know what it says...

There's this great bit in a british show called Miranda, where she's reading to little kids, and she just picks up a random book without looking at it, starts reading, and realises too late that it's Mein Kampf! SO FUNNY!

Anita wrote: "Rea wrote: "Well, with a lot of the recent ones someone tried to get them banned in certain schools or libraries usually for racism or being sexually explicit... or against their religion.

With ..."

I love Miranda! It's one of my favourite shows! That bit is soo funny. XD

I LOVE MIRANDA too! Haha she's amazing! I wish I could meet her in real life! :P

I do too! I want to go in her joke shop! I just want to see her have a disaster in front of me. :P

Once, a local tv show showed some fanatic christians making a protest against Harry Potter in Santiago. It was years ago and I was in shock :S


Well, it's not very exciting, but one of my friends liked it.

Ok, I'll read:
1. A clockwork orange
2. The communist manifesto
3. Lolita

(I can't believe that Chaucer was banned from the US xDD and tolkien.. dude, tolkien!!! )

I just noticed that my school teachers made us read a lot of these banned books. How rebel!

Haha, we read the French ones too! And I've read a number of them by choice without realising that someone had attempted to have them banned.

Started on my first book.

Banned books are usually the best ones I have several banned book bookmarks I got from my college library

Jeshu wrote: "I just noticed that my school teachers made us read a lot of these banned books. How rebel!"

I had a rebel English teacher in 9th grade...she was French, marrying a Greek airforce pilot...only stayed for one year...She forced me to read all the good stuff. Like an angel sent to open my brain!

i didn't know harry potter was banned here...(america). i know as a teacher, if i had read the book to my students, i would have had parents complaining!

i had a parent who refused to allow me to show obama's inauguration on tv. her daughter had to sit out. she said it was because she didn't approve of his stand on abortion, but i always wondered.....

to kill a mockingbird is on the banned list i believe...that upsets me...

btw: i teach 2nd grade....

I've read quite a few of these already and had no idea they were banned!

The Handmaid's Tale
Fahrenheit 451
The Master and Margarita

were already on my TBR so I'm going to cheat and aim to read them by Christmas :)

Eh?

TOLKIEN?!? He's like the master of fantasy! Why's he on the banned books list?

Rose wrote: "Eh?

TOLKIEN?!? He's like the master of fantasy! Why's he on the banned books list?"

I know, right? I almost became an orc when I saw it!! Banning him should be considered blasphemy!

Rose wrote: "Eh?

TOLKIEN?!? He's like the master of fantasy! Why's he on the banned books list?"

He's banned because some Americans decided that his fantasy was against their Christian beliefs (despite the fact that there are STRONG Christian themes in his work) and they tried to get his book banned. They even burnt copies of LotR! They should be hanged.

Rea wrote: "He's banned because some Americans decided that his fantasy was against their Christian beliefs (despite the fact that there are STRONG Christian themes in his work)"

That just shows how ridiculous the people who ban books are - half the time they don't even understand what they are reading! (If they read them at all.)

*inner fantasy fan throws a screaming fit*

Wow. *shakes head* Just how is LOTR aginst Christian beliefs? Oh, and a bunch of people banned C.S. Lewis as well. *sigh* I did a project on banned books for English class. The reasons books are banned can be so stupid at times. It can be hilarious as well--Anne Rice has books she wrote under a pen name (I probably won't read them, maybe out of morbid curiosity one day) that were banned. All I can say is...look at the genre, it's supposed to be like that, lol

1984 (or was it animal farm?). Anyway, GEORGE ORWELL is the best example of why people who bans books are stupid: his work was banned in the URSS for being anti-communism, and banned from the US for containing references to communism. What the hell?

Jeshu wrote: "1984 (or was it animal farm?). Anyway, GEORGE ORWELL is the best example of why people who bans books are stupid: his work was banned in the URSS for being anti-communism, and banned from the US fo..."

That's a very good example! Thankfully books that they try to ban don't actually get banned these days (most of the time).

I heard that Twilight was banned at one high school....

Rose wrote: "I heard that Twilight was banned at one high school...."

One very intelligent high school some (myself included) might say. :P

I forget the reason why, it was something stupid.

That's a shame. It would have been interesting to know it.

Here's a link to an artical about the banning of Twilight.

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ac/201009...

i think the idea of banning books is a waste of time...it only makes MORE people want to read the book.....

Wow, I've read most of these books. The ban on Tarzan on the Apes is completely ridiculous. Tarzan and Jane didn't live together at all, she was with her father, Mammy, her father's colleague and their bodyguard.

Harry Potter wan banned because is promotes devil worship?

Stories about witches and wizards have been around for hundreds of years. Look at Autherian legends--Morgan Le Fay was a sorceress.

How is Harry Potter evil...?

I think coz of voldemot and that lol

Rose wrote: "How is Harry Potter evil...? "

There's an entire website dedicated to that!!
http://www.exposingsatanism.org/harry...

Why don't we just bann the entire fantasy genre if stories featuring magic are so eeeeevile?

Ssssshhh don't give them ideas!!!! XD

That was sarcasm.

Banning books makes people want to read them even more. It would be better if parents explain to their kids "I don't want you reading book x, here's why." and then explain why.

Well, luckily trying to ban a book just tends to get you ridiculed now. I'm reading a book right now that got banned because it portrays a man and a woman living together without being married. Granted, I suppose this was something to be more shocked about back when it was written! (late 1700s).

Rose wrote: "That was sarcasm."

I know :S

I finished a clockwork orange!!! :D yay!
I liked it! I thought it would be more violent, but for me the movie was worst.

Jeshu wrote: "I finished a clockwork orange!!! :D yay!
I liked it! I thought it would be more violent, but for me the movie was worst."

Oh really? Maybe I could give the book a go then. The violence in the film put me off.

I had the same feeling, but even though the book is still explicit, it's not thaaat shocking. Maybe Alex's narration influenced it, because he was very light and relaxed to tell his story. Also, sexual violence isn't as common in the book as in the movie :)

Jeshu wrote: "I had the same feeling, but even though the book is still explicit, it's not thaaat shocking. Maybe Alex's narration influenced it, because he was very light and relaxed to tell his story. Also, se..."

Yeah - those were definitely the parts I found most disturbing. Mind you, I watched the film about ten years ago so I might have been a bit more sensitive to things than I am now. Not that I don't still think that kind of thing is bad now of course - I think I was just more innocent back then.