This is the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week!

I am ashamed to admit that I've only read a handful of banned (technically, the word is "challenged") books. From the list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000, I've read:

• #22 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• #32 Blubber by Judy Blume
• #47 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• #52 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• #77 Carrie by Stephen King
• #78 Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

It's been a very long time since I have read any of those books. So, here are the books that I will seek out to read...

• #3 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• #6 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• #13 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• #17 A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
• #18 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• #37 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• #41 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• #69 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

There's lots of stuff to read at the Banned Books homepage, but be sure to also check out The Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q&A.

And, from the Freedom to Read Statement:

We trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe. We do not believe they are prepared to sacrifice their heritage of a free press in order to be "protected" against what others think may be bad for them.

* icon by NewProtest.org, interesting site! *

Static8 > Journal > Archive > 24 Sept 2006 Entry