My goodness I almost forgot that it's Banned Books Week -September 24 - October 1! Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to increased book challenges, Banned Book Week is now an annual event. Since 1982, more than 11,000 books have been challenged.
If you feel like reading a banned book, below is a short list to get you started. These are all classics which have been repeatedly banned. If you're interested in the reason why they were banned, you can read about it here. There are a number of my favorite books on this list. What are some of your favorite banned books?
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Ulysses, by James Joyce
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
1984, by George Orwell
Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Native Son, by Richard Wright
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
4 comments:
There are more than several on the list that I have read and enjoyed. A couple I never heard of, and a couple I didn't like. Now I'm off to see why someone didn't want me to read them. I have some good guesses about several. I'll see if I am right.
I never liked Catcher in the Rye. I know it's supposed to be good but it just never appealed to me. It's interesting to read about why they were banned though.
One that I didn't include on this list but I've seen on banned lists is Little Women. One of my all time favorite books and I don't know why it would be considered offensive!
I "stole" the list and will download most of these to my nook to either re-read or read for the first time.
Great list!
It amazes me - the banning. The stupidity, the fear.
Oh good - that should keep you busy for quite a while anyway!
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