- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 0
- 6
-
Sparkle (1)
I'm very much in favor of the freedom to read what one chooses to read - and in order to make those choices well, one needs access to the full range of choices. I also believe in the freedom to choose not to read something. But I believe those rights belong to the individual and not to any institution (with an exception, perhaps, for parents of young children regarding what those children read in their own homes). I do not support censorship. I don't believe in delegating my right to decide what I can and can't read to anyone else. I have the tools to make those decisions for myself, and I believe we all have the right to those tools.
Having said that, I don't make a point of seeking out and reading banned or censored books just because they're banned. In some cases, the attempt to censor a book will actually pique my interest in it; it's the lure of the forbidden. (And some authors are well aware of that lure.) But I also know there are themes and topics that just don't appeal to me, and quality of writing notwithstanding, if I choose not to read a particular book, that will be the reason why, not because it's been challenged by some educational or morality police. That choice should remain mine - and yours.
In honor of Banned Books Week (Sept. 25-Oct.2), I thought I'd do a little inventory. With the help of LibraryThing's catalog of works tagged "banned books," I identified those in the top 150 that I've read at some point in my life - some I currently own, and some I read years ago (or at least prior to blogging).
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (banning this is the definition of irony, if you think about it...)
- Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
- The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (I read this one in middle and high school, but can't recall enough about it to understand what the issue with it is)
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (review)
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Forever... by Judy Blume
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (review)
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
- The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
 |
