Banned Books
I have been seeing this “Booking Through Thursday” meme floating around on some of the blogs I read and since I am a librarian after all and I do like to read, I thought maybe I would give it a go now and again. As I usually do when it comes to these meme-thingies, I am posting late, but as I have said before, this is my blog and I will post what I want, when I want! 
Anyway, on to “Booking Through Thursday,” brought to you this week on Saturday. The questions this week focus on a subject near and dear to my heart: banned books.
Unfortunately, even in America, books are often challenged and sometimes even banned. In library terms, a challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials from the curriculum or library, based upon the objections of a person or group, thereby restricting the access of others. A banning is the successful removal of those materials. Books usually are challenged with the best intentions—to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information.
However, librarians believe that “[t]he freedom to read is essential to our democracy” and therefore “[it is necessary to] uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources.”
Celebrate freedom! Read a banned book today.
Here are a few examples of books that have at one point or another been banned in the United States: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
And now for the questions!
Have you read any of the books I listed above?
Actually, I have read them all. Not only am I a librarian, I was an English major in college!
Have you ever knowingly read a banned book?
I have never read a book just because it was banned. However, given my background in literature and librarianship, I tend to know if a book has been challenged and/or banned when I read it.
Knowing that the above books have been banned, would you read them now? Why?
As I said, I have already read them all. However, I took a quick look at ALA’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1999-2000 and the top 3 were Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz, Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I have read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Angelou, but not the others. I would read them because I would like to know what the fuss is about and because my professional ethics would never allow me to pass judgment on a book one way or another without reading it first.
30 July 2005 at 08:51
It’s been a long, long time, but I believe I’ve also read all the books you mentioned from the Banned Books page. Time to read them again, I think, and refresh my memory as to what all the fuss is about.
I’ve never knowingly read a banned book. Maybe it’s time to start.
30 July 2005 at 16:58
In the 100th anniversary year of Twain, I was teaching Huck Finn in central Illinois and learned that the book was NOT taught in Hannibal MO (setting of Huck) High School! I wrote to the department chair and school principal for an explanation: never heard from either person! Go figure!!!!!
30 July 2005 at 17:19
I have read all the books, many times, and never realized they were banned. I didn’t realize I was being so “bad”
1 August 2005 at 00:36
I read the following:
How to Eat Fried Worms
Lord of the Flies
To Kill A Mockingbird
Catcher In the Rye (one of the most overrated novels I’ve read — why do people think this is agreat novel? It’s about a whiny boy who always says “If therer’s one thing I hate….”
A lot of the Judy Blume novels. But the best one she ever wrote was Wifey, an erotic novel.
Some of the books on the list are definately not suitable fo children:
Sex by Madonna?
But I don’t know if it should be banned from a library. Why can’t adults see it?
This is what happens when political groups (of both sides) try to impose their views on others.
Doomster
3 August 2005 at 11:42
Reading banned books makes me feel free! I think I will read another.
5 August 2005 at 07:35
Libraries and Librarians Rule. The last bastion of Intellectual Freedom in America. Well,ok, maybe not the last, but one of the strongest. I have read Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath and Gone With the Wind; not because they were banned, but because they are great books