Books, Blogs, Authors and More discussion

It may be a random topic but I was going through the most challenged books and was overwhelmed by the ridiculousness of it but also amused to see I was currently reading a banned book - The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. Have you read it? Does it deserve to be banned? What do you think of the rest? I was disgusted to see The Diary Of Anne Frank on there also. I've read 5 of the most banned books, how many have you read?

Most banned books: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala...

Christ, some of the reasons for the books being banned is absurd.

Anne Frank's diary was banned in just the one school "due to the complaint that the book includes sexual material and homosexual themes"

This was in rural-bloody Virginia. What on earth goes through these people's heads?

"A girl who was persecuted in Germany 60 years ago might turn my son gay".

Erg, Brave New World was banned by a school in Maryland.

I did laugh at The Koran being banned actually!

Haven't actually read anything on that particular list though.

3 books are banned. Though Betrayed by PC and Kristen Cast I can understand. Though I was surprised that Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was on it. It was half a true story about the authors experience with rape. Horrid list that was. Why ban books they are just what people have to say. Gosh.

I really don't see the point but it's inspired me to have a banned books month on my blog :)

Good idea that, Em. You could perhaps suggest it in some other groups and see if anyone else wants to join in with it.

I also expect a full, in-depth review of The Koran.

I don't think any of the main characters will be female, so you should be ok I reckon.

I don't even think the Koran is in English! But you never know I may give it 5 stars. I always find it funny when people give those books 1 srtar because they don't believe the religion. As for your idea to get others involved i might just do that!

Brave New World and Slaughterhouse Five banned. oh the irony!!!!

There is a Banned Books group on GR. I am a member.
It's at http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2...

I've read five of the books on that challenged list:

The Awakening
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Brave New World
Song of Solomon
Catcher in the Rye

Still happening today! What do you think of...
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...
?

Forever in Blue the Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood! Ohh my god some of these are really ridiculous!

Absolutely. I fail to see how someone has the right to decide what is harmful or not for me to read. How is he or she qualified to do that and, as for governments having that power...
I will read a banned book as a matter of principle.

Regards

Hilton

I Can Hear Them Singing Now

I met Sonya Sones (her book "One of Those Hideous Books where the Mother Dies" made the list) and she was rightfully proud that she's made the "most banned list" a few years in a row. Her books are awesome and they're pissing off people in Wisconsin, so she's doing something right.

That just reminded me to add some of Sonya's books.

Buck Tanner

I find it ironic that Fahrenheit 451 is itself a banned book.

I personally think the practice of banning of books is absurd. Its all because certain groups are afraid ppl with think for themsleves.

When I worked as General Books Manager a few years ago we held a Banned Books Week. It was the biggest week in sales (aside from Sci-Fi, we have a lot of nerds on campus or as I call them, my people. hehehe).
I think if I remember correctly, Bridge to Terabithia is on there even.

I know and that was a Disney film!

I am absolutley disgusted by this list! It comments on how its the celebration of the freedom to read yet how can it say that when its suggesting books to ban.
Nobody tells me what I can and can't read, especially when it comes to some books that in fact should be read, for example Anne Franks diary.

I'm really intrigued and off to check out this ridiculous sounding list.

Em you should follow up 'banned books month', with 'books I wish they'd banned' month :) breaking dawn read along?

Wow, they banned Water for Elephants for sexual content; didn't they realise the huge trunk belonged to the elephant? #misread

Hehehe :)

Melanie wrote: "I'm really intrigued and off to check out this ridiculous sounding list.

Em you should follow up 'banned books month', with 'books I wish they'd banned' month :) breaking dawn read along?"

That's an awesome idea. I'm do going to do that. Get ready for some Twi-Bashing!!

I'm actually lol at the idea of you hosting a twilight read along :)

Wow I should do that. Analysing every sentance.

“And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..." he murmured.
Edward lion? Seriously?

What a stupid lamb," I sighed.
What a sick, masochistic lion.”
Couldn't agree more!!

I've read 5 but it's my ambition to write a book that gets banned. Then I'll know I'm on the right path!

I've read a few banned books, but not because they were banned. These examples are somewhat silly, but there are other books where you could have a serious discussion on the moral messages they put out.

A big one for me was The Chocolate War. Robert Cormier is a surprisingly nihilistic author, and that book's message that "If you dare to disturb the universe, sometimes it turns and crushes you" is something that thankfully is lost on teens.

Bridge to Terabithia too has some mixed messages. Don't go on an trip to an art museum with your teacher whom you have a crush on or you'll regret it when you come back!

I never advocate the banning of books at all, but there's a danger in which the "good" books shock the hicks and are wonderfully transgressive. Especially with kids literature, we should take critical looks at the morality of the book and discuss it.

Yikes, I don't even KNOW any banned books. I have never thought about them even. How odd. I know the Nazis burnt them. I know the Bible in English cld get you tortured and burned at the stake in the 16th century. Ach, now I think about it I have read two books that I think were banned: The Flowers of Evil & Paris Spleen and Les Chants de Malderor which must be so deeply sinister it does not even show up here on an add book/author search. Hmm, I think I may have peered into Lady Chatterly's lover once also. But not when it was banned. Is Hitler's book banned? Hmm, does it show up on the add book/author search? Mein Kampf Ach, there is is! Not that I have any desire to read it. But it is fitting that it is here because it shows that we do not ban or burn. No book should be banned methinks. Hmm, but wld I want my kids reading some of the juicier passages of Maldoror? Is it still banned I wonder? What sort of person bans books anyway? Ach, I am naive.

Here's the first sentence of Les Chants de Malderor:

God grant that the reader, emboldened and having become at present as fierce as what he is reading, find, without loss of bearings, his way, his wild and treacherous passage through the desolate swamps of these sombre, poison-soaked pages; for, unless he should bring to his reading a rigorous logic and a sustained mental effort at least as strong as his distrust, the lethal fumes of this book shall dissolve his soul as water does sugar.

Of course this wld be thought a little tame by many a death metal lyricist now, a sort of starting point. Times were hard in France c 1870 though, what with the Prussians pounding away with their howitzers. *bows*

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I got 'twenty boy summer'. Its on the list and I was feeling rebellious.

I've read quite a few on this list and to be quite honest the reasons for them being banned are crazy but I can see why some people like to ban them. I mean come on! Harry Potter is banned in some places because it encourages children to practice the supernatural. How absurd. I'm leaving to play Quidditch with my friends....

Emily wrote: "It may be a random topic but I was going through the most challenged books and was overwhelmed by the ridiculousness of it but also amused to see I was currently reading a banned book - The Perks O..."

hi, I have never seen a list of banned books, so this is my first time. Who makes those lists and who is presuming they know what is good or bad for others? I don't believe in banning books and it's an attempt to mind control that is assuming people are unable to make up their own mind about what to think.
The only reason to ban certain publications could be if these promote hate or violence against others.
Johanna

I don't think I'd read a book just because it was banned. When I was at the school there was the whole thing about Spy Catcher and then about The Satanic Verses, neither of which sounded particularly interesting. But I do believe in free speech. I don't think you should ban a book because it peddles untruths or is uncomfortable - those should be exposed and challenged. There are, however, books which are banned because they tell you how to make bombs or chemical weapons (again, there was one doing the rounds when I was at school) and I think those should certainly be out of general circulation.

Once the library had a display on banned books
Included in the list was The Bible
Once Black Beauty was banned because whites thought it was about black pride or a black beautiful woman.
I agree with Andrew.
One of the questions I ask is why it was banned.
There are materials, however, which justifies a ban.
Should America allow "How Anyone can Overthrow the Government with a Can of Coke and a Pair of Sunglasses in One Hour"?

One quick comment about banned books: I think it's almost a certainty that once a book is listed on a banned books list, it becomes a best seller because we humans are curious people. I've read a few "banned" books over the years. One of them was Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, which was scandalous, I guess, because of all of the sex, language, and debauchery. Lady Chatterley's Lover was another one on the list. I don't think I would have read either of them if they weren't on the list. (And I didn't really care for either book, to be honest.) :)

Margaret wrote: "One quick comment about banned books: I think it's almost a certainty that once a book is listed on a banned books list, it becomes a best seller because we humans are curious people. I've read a f..."

Mickey Spillane said when the Catholic Church banned one of his books, it sold very well.

Demetrius wrote: "Margaret wrote: "One quick comment about banned books: I think it's almost a certainty that once a book is listed on a banned books list, it becomes a best seller because we humans are curious peop..."

Sounds like they did him a big favor. :)

your'e right. It was on a talk show. He grinned and the audience applauded
He also answered the question why Mike Hammer shot the woman in the belly.
Answer: He missed.

Back when Spy Catcher was banned people even sold key-rings of the book. Controversy does seem to generate sales - which will be why the publishers of the Da Vinci Code engineered one by having one of their other authors scream plagiarism (despite the fact that Umberto Eco trod the same ground before either of them).

I think you're talking about Henry Lincoln et al here, and I don't think that case was engineered for publicity purposes. Umberto Eco didn't tread the ground before the co-authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail - Eco's Foucault's Pendulum even references the earlier work (and mocks it soundly).

Andrew wrote: "I don't think I'd read a book just because it was banned. When I was at the school there was the whole thing about Spy Catcher and then about The Satanic Verses, neither of which sounded particular..."

think the horse has bolted on bomb making books, cos it's all out there on the internet now

Andrew wrote: "I think you're talking about Henry Lincoln et al here, and I don't think that case was engineered for publicity purposes. Umberto Eco didn't tread the ground before the co-authors of Holy Blood, Ho..."

It is so predictable, in a hundred years time any book that was for a certain reason outlawed, will be outdated and banning seems ludicrous then. A good thing too that we progress in our thinking. I also think the banning is often regional and in line with its society e.g. Euthanasia compare the Netherlands and north American society. Andrew I'm trying to contact you for a blog hop tag for your book. Johanna van Zanten

Diary of Anne Frank? Really?
Most of them seemed to be complaining about swearing, and sex.

Just found an updated list of books that are frequently attacked considered dangerous and or banned in some communities.

What do you think of the list? Is it mainly political/religious?

The adventures of tom sawyer
sleeping beauty
tarzan of the apes
I know why the caged bird sings
just so stories
the mayo of casterbrudge
my house
catch-22
flowers for algeron
a raisin in the sun
the bible
doctor zhivago
of time and the river
all the king;s men
catcher in the rye
the colour purple
of mice and men
one hundred years of solitude
the handmaids tale
grendel
lord of the flies
death of a salesmen
a farewell to arms
fear of flying
where the sidewalk ends
sophie's choice
working
gone with the wind

Sleeping Beauty? They banned Sleeping Beauty? And Tarzan?
What is wrong with the world...

I haven't read many of those; Of Mice and Men, SB and Tarzan.

That must be a religious or sectarian background, seeing the variety of books. The thing they have in common is maybe independent thought of the writer who depicts people going against established rules. Yes, nothing is as dangerous as a rebel or strong independent thinker, especially when it is a woman, or it is about breaking racial barriers. Enough said.
Johanna van Zanten

Ive read a few books off that list and I personally dont find Of Mice and Men, Catcher In The Rye or A Handmaids Tale to be offensive however given the time they were written and some of the content thats in the book are reasons why they are banned. People were very touchy back then and hush hush and theres some things you just didnt talk about and yes years later its a question as to why some of these books or even new ones are banned? Because theres always people who cant grasp harsh realities in concepts for books. Sex or sexual innuendos, violent themes, language are all reasons why a book may get banned but sometimes its none of those but something we find absurd or silly but others deem innapropriate. Anne Frank to me while its soo famous its what I said as a harsh reality which some deem offensive which yes of course it is it really happened! Of Mice and Men? ehh I kind of see it but its not that bad to me. But again I guess it really all comes down to a matter of ones perception of content.

Apparently I have read quite a few banned books! And I must live under a rock, because I wasn't aware there were such things. To think I was reading parts of the Koran and the Bible under the watchful eye of Big Brother. If I turn up missing, you'll know why.

I have read most of the bible, I haven't read the Koran but I do own a copy and I may well read it.

I have read a few on the list above, I read black beauty last year and I have read Lady Chatterley's Lover a few times. I like Oscar Wilde too and I know some of his books were risque at the time.

I noticed on the original list many of them were school bannings... I just wish we had read things interesting enough to be banned;) That said we did read a lot of WW2 literature. I can't remember if we read Anne Frank but we did read a book called Friedrich about a German boy who befriends a Jewish lad at the start of the war.

I really don't see the point in banning a book. If you don't want to read it, or disagree with the message or contents then DON'T READ IT but don't take away the choice of others to do so.

Sexual content is always a delicate subject in books, especially for younger readers. Ditto violence. I was reading grown up books pretty young, I read Dracula and frankenstein at about 12 and Dracula certainly has sexual themes. Both are violent. I read Phantom of the Opera when I was 12 and I saw the stage show at the same age... I probably didn't really understand ALL the connotations.

Let people read and make their own decide for themselves. There are books I don't want to read and never will but I would not dream of saying "That should be banned".

Of Mice and Men banned??? I studied that at school.


I started to read catcher in the rye because it was banned. I have to say I couldn't finish it, it annoyed me too much.

It just seemed to be about some whiney teenager having a whinge.

Good Lord, that updated list is just bizarre.