After reading Mrs. Holpepper Bookworm‘s post about this year’s Banned Books Week, I decided to investigate some more. And to be honest, I was shocked by some of the books that were either challenged or directly banned from reading. I have been lucky growing up in a place liberal enough for books not to be banned (at least not in public). My literature teacher maybe wasn’t happy with some of my reading choices, but nobody has ever forbidden me to read a book. It is terrible that book banning is still tolerated in 2014, and some of the titles really surprised me. You can check out the full lists yourself right here if you want to…
Below I’ve highlighted the books I have either already enjoyed myself or books that are written by authors I’ve enjoyed before. Some of the titles were mentioned in various lists, but I’ve decided to name each one only once. The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Brave New World, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Kite Runner, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest… They easily belong to the list of favorite books of all time!
Books banned or challenged in 2013-2014
Anne Frank Diary, by Anne Frank
- The Pillars Of The Earth, by Ken Follet
- Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
- Looking For Alaska, by John Green
- Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell
- The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
21. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
36. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
49. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
74. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999
22. The Witches, by Roald Dahl
50. James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
68. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
81. Carrie, by Stephen King
82. The Dead Zone, by Stephen King
83. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
What about you? Have you read any of these books mentioned above? What do you think about the act of banning books in general? Feel free to link me to your own posts about the Banned Books Week!
Banning books these days is mostly about politically/religiously “correct” folks worrying it’ll influence their kids negatively. I actually had a friend who’s mother refused to let him read Harry Potter when we were growing up, because of how religiously Christian she was.
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Yeah, I guess you are right… It’s hard to be banning books anyway with the internet giving easy access to pdf files and the like. I can totally relate to the story with Harry Potter; I’ve heard of others that weren’t able to read the series when they were younger because of the same reason.
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Yea, piracy is too rampant. One of the best ways to draw attention to a book is to ban it.
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Totally! Banning books only works against them in the end.
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The banning of books is odd particularly when, as you’ve done, look at the books that have been banned. Who can possibly think that Anne Franks diary should be banned! It is a true story of great importance. I think those people who want to remove certain books from their own children’s reading list, which if that is how they want to raise their own children, don’t have enough faith that there children will obey them if they need to remove them from every child. I really can’t believe it is allowed to happen on the scale it does. One family’s beliefs should not be forced onto every family in the vicinity.
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I totally agree; The Anne Frank diary is of historical importance and I really don’t understand why they would want to stop people read it. It might be because of certain feelings Anne expressed, but still… But at least at the Dutch schools they do give the book the attention it deserves.
It is sad that parents still think they can control their children by banning certain books or other cultural expressions, and the fact that they want to force other families to do the same is horrible. Although it doesn’t happen on national scale in most places, it is still shocking how in some parts of our world people cannot read what they want.
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Great post! It really is unbelievable isn’t it that we’re still dealing with this? Narrow minded, ignorant, fanatics that have nothing better to do than to try to force their opinions on everyone else. I live in Danvers, MA home of the Puritans and Witcraft Trials, and when I was a children’s librarian I had a heated argument with a patron who wanted me to remove the Harry Potter series from our collection. My director and I had a meeting with her where I outlined why the books weren’t going anywhere. Since she was Catholic, as am I, I even included the numerous passages in which Christian symbols are interspersed throughout the books, to no avail. She wound up huffing out of the office and refused to return to our library with her children. I didn’t miss her, but I felt badly for her kids. I learned though that you cannot reason with these people. They have made up their minds and will not be dissuaded by their “cause”. Not that I feel strongly about this subject or anything! I’m going to climb down from my soapbox now.
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It’s sad that some people are still that narrow minded and simply don’t want to understand the purpose of a fiction novel. The fact that people want to ban books like the Harry Potter series (which are, to me at least, harmless), is something I cannot understand. And you even had an actual case where people were trying to ban books from a library, wow! In a way I feel sorry for that woman; she cannot really feel secure about her beliefs if she need books to be banned from a public library. And the worse part is that, if she would have succeeded, other kids wouldn’t have been able to read the books either. Poor kids though… I’m glad you were able to win the argument! 🙂
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You know what’s even sadder? The majority of these people haven’t even read the books they’re trying to ban. They’ve just “heard things”. That was the case with this woman. I personally found Brett Ellis’ American Psycho deeply offensive but first, I actually read it, and second, I would give it my all defending it’s right to be read by people.
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Totally agree, the ignorance of those people makes it even worse. If they want to express an opinion, they should at least inform themselves correctly before opening their mouths… Unfortunately that doesn’t happen in general.
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I’ve read most of the ones you listed. Some of them are surprising. I grew up in the conservative deep south in the States and I had no idea some of these were banned or challenged. Amazing.
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While with some of the books it is easier to understand why people would challenge them, some are of the titles are surprising indeed.
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I hate the entire concept of banning books. Each parent should decide if a book is right for their kids or not. After looking at that list it amazes me. After they ban so many, what books are left? Lovely post Yvo. 🙂
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I totally agree with you; each person should be able to decide on its own whether a book is suitable or not. And with some of the titles I can truly not understand what the danger of reading it would be… It should be forbidden banning books. 😉
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Banning Books just draws more attention to them, so if I had a kid and didn’t want them to read a book I would just be like, you can read this when you’re older. Harry Potter? The Hunger Games? The diary of Anne Frank? These books have shaped me into who I am today.
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Yes, banning them doesn’t help those who want to hide its content… Making something forbidden makes it just more attractive for others to try and read it anyway. And I have exactly the same feelings with those books; I would have been the same person today without reading those books.
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