It's Banned Books Week!

[monkeybard]

Out of curiosity, I went hunting for a list of banned books so that I could see what I've read that some idiots have banned at some point. I found a complete list from 2005 here: http://www.oclc.org/research/top1000/complete.htm and a shorter but still interesting list here: http://title.forbiddenlibrary.com/

I went through the list (which contains a lot of music and I can't see how those are "books but whatever) and found 109 that I know I have read. There were some that I know, but don't know that I personally have read (mostly fairy tales--I know 'em, but have I read 'em? Who knows?) There were also seven in particular that I've wanted to read but haven't gotten around to yet.

Here's my list.

1984 - George Orwell

Across Five Aprils - Irene Hunt

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The - Mark Twain

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - Judith Viorst

All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot

Amelia Bedelia - Peggy Parish

Anne of Avonlea - L. M. Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery

Anne of the Island - L. M. Montgomery

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume

Beloved - Toni Morrison

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

Call of the Wild, The - Jack London

Candide - Voltaire

Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss

Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

Charlotte's Web - E. B. White

Cider House Rules - John Irving

Cold Sassy Tree - Olive Ann Burns

>Comedy of Errors - William Shakespeare

Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Crucible - Arthur Miller

Curious George - H. A. Rey

Cyrano de Bergerac - Edmond Rostand

Dicey's Song - Cynthia Voigt

Dubliners - James Joyce

Dune - Frank Herbert

Egypt Game, The - Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Elements of Style - William Strunk & E.B. White

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Far Side, The - Gary Larson

Fiddler on the Roof - Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E. L. Konigsburg

Giver, The - Lois Lowry

Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown

Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss

Handmaid's Tale, A - Margaret Atwood

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Howards End - E. M. Forster

Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice

Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell

Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach

King John - William Shakespeare

King Lear - William Shakespeare

Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The - C.S. Lewis

Little Prince. The - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Lorax, The - Dr. Seuss

Love's Labour's Lost - William Shakespeare

Lysistrata - Aristophanes

Madeline - Ludwig Bemelmans

Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury

Merry Wives of Windsor - William Shakespeare

Mikado - Arthur Sullivan and W. S. Gilbert

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh - Robert C. O'Brien

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

Passage to India - E. M. Forster

Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger

Pericles - William Shakespeare

Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren

Prince Caspian the Return to Narnia - C. S. Lewis

Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor

Room With a View - E. M. Forster

Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy

Separate Peace, A - James Knowles

Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

Silver Chair - C. S. Lewis

Sons and Lovers - D. H. Lawrence

Stuart Little - E. B. White

Summer of the Swans - Betsy Cromer Byars

Tale of Benjamin Bunny - Beatrix Potter

Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

Time Machine - H. G. Wells

Titus Andronicus - William Shakespeare

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Troilus and Cressida - William Shakespeare

Trumpet of the Swan - E. B. White

Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt

Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare

Two Gentlemen of Verona - William Shakespeare

Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams Bianco

Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle

Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis

Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim

Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls

Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears - Verna Aardema

Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

Winter's Tale - William Shakespeare

Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare

Witches of Worm, The - Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Wrinkle In Time, A - Madeleine L'Engle

And the ones I want to read:

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf

Saint Joan - George Bernard Shaw

Sorrows of Young Werther - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

Ulysses - James Joyce

So, what banned books have you read and which was your favourite? My fave, you ask? Right now I'd have to say it's Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

Comments

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

What IDIOT (sorry) would ban Anne of Green Gables?!!!!! Or any books by LLM? Morons.

Velveteen Rabbit, The Little Princess & The Little Prince?! Seriously?

OMFG - West Side Story? Seriously...that was banned too?

I know about Where the Side walk ends and Where the Wild Things Are...and still think some people are just fucking morons.

Gods I hate book banning. If some idiot doesn't want to read the book, then by gods, don't read it, but do NOT tell me I can't read it. Cause you know what? I'll go get it and read it right in front of your ignorant ass. *weg*

After work I'll have to look at the list a bit closer, but those are a few I've read and LOVE.

*icon is aimed at morons who ban books not you. I ♥ you. :D

[monkeybard]

I know, I know! The logic--and I use the word very loosely--escapes!

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

I have never understood the mentality of the NEED to ban books. ::rolleyes::

[devinam.livejournal.com]

I'm so puzzled...why in the world would some of those kids books be banned??? like the Anne...books, and Alexander and the Terrible...Day...what could possibly be in those books that would be bad?? and WINNIE THE POOH??? along with these banned book lists, is there anywhere that says what people's objections were to these books? THAT's the list I'd like to see.

[monkeybard]

Banning of books never makes sense, and in the case of the children's books listed even less. Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears fer cryin' out loud! I mean, WTF?!

[devinam.livejournal.com]

Ah, wait, I see at the forbidden library site, they do have the objections to the books. SO interesting...

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

I can't look at the forbidden library site at work. "Adult content" blockage from the fire wall. Which cracks me up because I can get into my lj - which I specifically flagged as "Adult Content" cause I didn't want some whiny ass reporting me due to my potty mouth. :)

[devinam.livejournal.com]

it's mostly the "classic" books that it discusses...the poster of this list states that the books are listed along with their (the poster's) snarky comments. some of them are amusing. i want to know why all the children's books on M's list were banned...looks like i should do some research on google.

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

I kinda figured that was the case...but it just cracks me up some of the sites that work bans and it doesn't ban.

[monkeybard]

Did you see the reason and the comment on Where's Waldo? LOL!

[devinam.livejournal.com]

yes, yes i did. it made me laugh. i bet the creator of that particular picture snuck that in just to see who would notice. ;)

[vflick.livejournal.com]

I saw a banned books list recently - I think it was the american library association list of most often banned books. I read down the list going "oh! I'd like to read that" on pretty much ever book that I hadn't already read. I don't understand people.

[monkeybard]

People are stupid. That's why I only like individuals. ;)

[write-light.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I can see how a weird mind might object to it, but Winnie the Pooh????

[monkeybard]

I know. It's a serious WTF?, isn't it? The House at Pooh Corner is on the list, too. Some people are just inescapably wacko.