Banned Books Week

To kick off this year's Banned Books Week (Sep 27 - Oct 3), the American Library Association has published a list of the Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade. 

It's an interesting list, with a few of my all-time favorites among the titles (Huck Finn, Lolita, 1984, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Also many titles I've never even heard of and lots I haven't read (and probably won't, at my age). But I'm intrigued, just the same. Here's the list, with the books I have read in bold typeface.

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2. Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey
3. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
4. Looking for Alaska by John Green
5. George by Alex Gino
6. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
7. Drama by Raina Telgemeier
8. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
9. Internet Girls (series) by Lauren Myracle
10. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
11. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
12. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
13. I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel
14. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
15. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
16. Bone (series) by Jeff Smith
17. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
18. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
19. A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss
20. Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg
21. Alice McKinley (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
22. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris
23. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
24. Scary Stories (series) by Alvin Schwartz
25. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
26. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
27. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
28. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
29. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
30. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
31. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
32. It's a Book by Lane Smith
33. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
34. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
35. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
36. A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer
37. Bad Kitty (series) by Nick Bruel
38. Crank by Ellen Hopkins
39. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
40. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
41. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey
42. This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman
43. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
44. A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl by Tanya Lee Stone
45. Beloved by Toni Morrison
46. Goosebumps (series) by R.L. Stine
47. In Our Mothers' House by Patricia Polacco
48. Lush by Natasha Friend
49. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
50. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
51. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
52. The Holy Bible (well, I've read a lot of it)
53. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
54. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
55. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
56. Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar
57. House of Night (series) by P.C. Cast
58. My Mom's Having A Baby by Dori Hillestad Butler
59. Neonomicon by Alan Moore
60. The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake
61. The Giver by Lois Lowry
62. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
63. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
64. Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle
65. Dreaming In Cuban by Cristina Garcia
66. Fade by Lisa McMann
67. The Family Book by Todd Parr
68. Feed by M.T. Anderson
69. Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
70. Habibi by Craig Thompson
71. House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
72. Jacob's New Dress by Sarah Hoffman
73. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
74. Monster by Walter Dean Myers
75. Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter
76. Saga by Brian K. Vaughan
77. Stuck in the Middle by Ariel Schrag
78. The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal
79. 1984 by George Orwell
80. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
81. Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
82. Awakening by Kate Chopin
83. Burned by Ellen Hopkins
84. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
85. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
86. Glass by Ellen Hopkins
87. Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesle´a Newman
88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
89. Madeline and the Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans
90. My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis
91. Prince and Knight by Daniel Haack
92. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology by Amy Sonnie
93. Skippyjon Jones (series) by Judith Schachner
94. So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins
95. The Color of Earth (series) by Tong-hwa Kim
96. The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter
97. The Walking Dead (series) by Robert Kirkman
98. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
99. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S Brannen
100. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Teaser Tuesdays: The Catcher in the Rye

This week I'm taking my teaser lines from a book that I'm not actually reading at the moment, although I've read it several times in the past. Since this is Banned Books Week, I thought I'd use a little snippet from one of the most frequently banned and challenged modern classics, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. The book has been a target ever since its publication in 1951, and it continues to stir up controversy in libraries and school districts all over the country.

This excerpt is from page 24, and has the book's protagonist, Holden Caulfield, thinking about his literary preferences (sorry - more than two lines again):

I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.... What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.

No, it doesn't, does it? I remember that when I first read the book at about age sixteen or so (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), I was pretty much in total agreement with Holden's thoughts, and really would have liked to call up J.D. Salinger and tell him how much I liked his book. Strange that someone with such reclusive tendencies could have written those lines, but I guess the younger Salinger might not have been such a hermit.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.

Tuesday Thingers: Banned Books List

This week is Banned Books Week, and Marie at The Boston Bibliophile has an appropriate project for the Tuesday Thingers group. Take the list of Most Frequently Challenged Books of the 1990s from the ALA website, highlight what you've read, and italicize what you have in your LT library.

It's a long list and I'm afraid my showing isn't very good, so I've edited it to show just the books I've read and/or have in my LT library. Here's my list:

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Gets my vote for Great American Novel. I've read it many times.
2. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - I always thought this was pretty awful, but don't see why it's so often challenged. Just dull and boring.
3. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - One of the favorite books of my youth. Whenever I reread it today, I just end up thinking what a nasty little piece of work Holden is. He definitely had too much time on his hands. They should have pulled him out of that prep school, smacked him a few times, and sent him out to find a job.
4. The Color Purple by Alice Walker - I've never read this and I'm very embarrassed to admit that. I'd make it my project for the week, except that I'm snowed under with challenge books right now.
5. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel - Well, I haven't read the whole series - just the first book. I liked it, but not enough to continue watching everybody evolve.
6. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle - Haven't read this yet, but it's on my list.
7. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood - The only Atwood I've read. More cause for embarrassment.
8. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - First read this when it originally came out back in the 60s. Loved it then, love it now. Don't know why I don't have a copy in my library.
9. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - OK, I don't see this listed in my LT catalogue, but I've definitely got it around here somewhere because my husband just read it recently. He must be hiding it under all those guitar magazines in his study.
10. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling - Again, haven't read the whole series - just the first book. Don't imagine I'll read any others anytime soon. Not a big fan of Potter. Even less of Rowling.
11. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein - Great book. I think I've given a copy of this book, at one time or another, to just about every child I've known.
12. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Huxley was a huge favorite of my "crowd" in high school.
13. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut - If you were a college student in the late 60s, this was required reading.
14. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - Strange, disturbing book from a strange, disturbing time in the history of the world.
15. Native Son by Richard Wright - I've read some of Wright's short works, but not the novels.
16. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende - I've liked most of the "magic realism" I've read, so I really should try this one.
17. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - One of the first "long" books I read by myself. I'm pretty sure I read Tom before I read Huck.
18. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford - OK, tell me why anyone would challenge this book. There's really not much to read here anyway, is there?
19. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman - I loved this when I was a toddler. All those tigers melting into butter just seemed magical. OK, so I was a strange toddler. I'm pretty sure I own several editions, but I think they're all in storage with most of my children's books.

I find it interesting that the list from the 2000-2007 period is slightly different from the 1990s list. It seems strange that a book would make it on one list, and not another. I can sort of understand it when it's a new title. But why should Fahrenheit 451 all of a sudden become suspect? Or why was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest acceptable in the 1990s, but not after 2000? Well, I suppose the answer has something to do with book banning not being a rational sort of practice in the first place.

The Sunday Salon: A Festive End to Catch-Up Week

I feel like I accomplished quite a bit this week, although I’m probably just delusional. But last week’s Weekly Geeks assignment was a great inducement to catch up on a few of the things I’d been meaning to do. My post about it is here, but basically what I did was figure out which books I still need to be reading for challenges, and what reviews I still need to write. It was fun and useful at the same time and I want to thank Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf for once again doing a wonderful job of coordinating everything.

Didn’t get a great deal of actual reading done this week. Just one book – John Bellairs’ gothic horror novel for young readers, The House with a Clock in Its Walls. I read it for the R.I.P. III Challenge being hosted by Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings. That one goes through October 31, and I’m going to be reading at least one other book for it – probably The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James. Nice and spooky.

Wrote a few reviews this week, too: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, So Long at the Fair by Christina Schwarz, and Mr. White’s Confession by Robert Clark. One hit and one miss and one home run – I guess that’s not a bad average.

Then yesterday, we topped off the week by driving into DC and attending the National Book Festival for a couple of hours. Didn’t buy any books. Didn’t have any books signed – the lines were miles long. The crowds were unbelievable. The weather was not outstanding – it was hot, humid and wet (typical Washington DC early fall day). And my allergies were driving me wild. So we just walked around a bit. Listened to James McBride and Geraldine Brooks (right). Had lunch at the Pavilion Café, in the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden – one of my favorite eateries in the District. Ate indoors because of the heat, but it was still fun. Noticed they’ve removed the Metropolitain entrance gate, that relic of the Paris Metro that made the place so distinctive. Wonder what’s going on with that?

Well, anyway, here are a couple more photos from the Festival (and one photo of the free loot I brought home). And don’t forget – this is Banned Books Week (sponsored by the American Library Association). You might want to take a look at their lists of frequently challenged books, and pick something really dangerous and controversial to read this week (like Where’s Waldo?).

Random Notes: Coming Events

If you care about books, this Saturday, September 27th, is notable for a couple of reasons.

First, it’s the date of the 2008 National Book Festival in Washington, DC. I’ve never been to one of these, and I’d like to attend this one, but I’m not making myself any promises. For one thing, I think DC is supposed to be getting a lot of rain on Saturday, and I really can’t think of any authors I’d trudge around in the rain to see. Not any living authors, anyway.

The driving forces behind the Festival are, of course, the Library of Congress and Laura Bush. Over 70 authors are expected on the National Mall, to read, discuss and sign their works – including heavy-hitters like Salman Rushdie, Geraldine Brooks, Neil Gaiman, and Alexander McCall Smith.

For more info, see the Festival website. There’s also a National Book Festival Young Readers' Online Toolkit, which features a Hosting Guide with an overview of the site and ideas for holding local book festivals; an Author Details section including biographies and a “scoop” area that tells “the stories behind their stories”; and the 2008 National Book Festival Poster.


September 27th is also the first day of the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week (Celebrating the Right to Read). This is the 27th annual observance of the celebration, and it runs through October 4. The ALA has a Frequently Challenged Books webpage with various listings, including the Top 100 Challenged Books of 1990-1999 and 2000-2007. And there's a special Banned Books Week website, with information about local events around the country.

Some of my favorite books are among those listed as frequently banned. Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Flowers for Algernon, The Handmaid's Tale. I suppose I can understand the reasoning there (though I would abhor it). But what about Where's Waldo?? Why the heck would anyone object to that? Obviously, I didn't pick up on the lewd, subversive undertones of the book. While I was ruining my eyesight, scanning every page for the little guy in the striped sweater, I was probably being corrupted and didn't even know it!