Banned Books

 Click here for banned or frequently challenged 21st century books

sometimes i wonder why books are banned.  why?

a book encourages thinking, promotes knowledge

did you know that JKR's Harry Potter books - have been challenged and banned?

and for what -supposed Satanism, dealing with magic, and what have you...

and well, i did argue with a former priest about it

see, i dont remember if any fairy tale books have been banned but i dont think it will matter to me

my readings have never been censored, not even by my parents.  i read Playboy at a young age.  My Dad's only stipulation was that i read it somewhere else, not in his face.

i have read many books.  i continue to do so. my taste ranges from the classics to the modern graphic novels, Neil Gaiman's work is one of them.  As for classics, i have Voltaire, Socrates, St. Augustine and the "modern" classics like Huxley's "A Brave New World" - in the list of banned books, or Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird".  i love these 2 stories, in different ways and i cannot believe that these books have been banned repeatedly - particularly in this day and age.

To those of you who like movie tie-ins, Gregory Peck played the lawyer Atticus Finch in the 1960s classic film "To Kill a Mockingbird".  the story was about a black man accused of raping a white woman, Ella May (was her name i think). Atticus had 2 kids, a girl Scout and a boy Jem.  They had a black housekeeper named Calpurnia and a "weird" neighbor the kids called Boo Radley.  If you havent read it, you have to read it. now. go-and-buy a copy.  a digital copy is cheaper. but read it.  it focuses on brave and weak people and how people react in the face of shame.   it is about bias and prejudice and truths.  a good book never loses its shine, so yes, read it.

did you know that there is a very naughty book with the same title as Francis Hodgson Burnett's "My Secret Garden". i just googled the title, and i got another naughty book.  the book i was meant was written by a British bloke - whose name i dont remember anymore but the books were about his forays into his secret garden.

Even "Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger has been banned.  I really dont get it.

i give you the list, and hey, maybe it will spur you to read and find out if you agree with the people who challenge these books ......

i DO NOT LIKE censorship in any form.  i believe that censorship is the refuge of the weak.