O_O

[acoustics1220]

Woke up today to find that it's BANNED BOOKS WEEK!!!

And how cool is THAT?! I've been reading banned books FOR AGES!! LOL.

Maybe I should explain myself, for the past 7ish years, I've not watched much TV, or even listened to much news [or maybe the better word is paid attention] but when banned books conversation comes around, it never clicks in my mind that there's a 'week' where banned books are totally the craze. I just read what I find interesting and that's that. Banned book or not.

Apparently when I was in junior high I was becoming a rebel in action! I first read Goosebumps by R.L. Stine, and looking at his stats - he's got 62 books out in that series - I read around 30 of 'em, seriously had a collection, but sold them off to graduate to Harry Potter ;)

And of course in SCHOOL there were a few assigned books that were called into question:
The Color Purple (1983)
The Scarlet Letter (1850) HAWTHORNE!!!
Black Boy (1945)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1883)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

Ones I read on my own? Well, one that I can clearly see from just a few mentioned books on the list I'm looking at - I know why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969). Good book.

EDIT: Catcher in the Rye - not so good book. I think I finished it in a couple of hours [took so long because I didn't really like it], and I think I took it back to the store to switch books because I didn't want to keep it [unsatisfied with the product and you return it! lol]

And then there are just some really interesting books out there that I'm having the urge to go to a bookstore and look at. One would be: And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. This book is about 2 male penguins that shack up and want a penguin kidlet of their own. Yeah...and interestingly enough, THIS STORY IS BASED ON TRUE FACTS. ??? I've included the link somewhere earlier in this post. Apparently more and more books are coming out about homosexuality in this carefully constructed child-safe approach like 'oh look penguins! How cute! And look, they've got a baby penguin now too! ...Yeah, the parent penguins are Paul and Justin.'

Lol. And there's another book Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman (1989) ...Interesting.

=D Looks like I'll be heading to the library soon. Hopefully they've a display of these books so I can find them easily.

Comments

[syven.livejournal.com]

Catcher in the Rye was one of the banned books in my high school (in the 80's). I remember our hippie!wannabie English teacher going across the state line and buying up secondhand paperback copies of the book - enough for everyone in the class. We had to prop open our English Textbook and put the paperback inside it during class because the Principal would walk in unexpectedly all the time (very conservative school).

All these years later, I can still remember most of the story and it wasn't because it was compelling. Honestly, I thought it was a load of crap but because it was so thrilling and rebellious to be reading a banned book in school.

[acoustics1220.livejournal.com]

ohhh - I've read that one too - not a compelling read. :-|

That's an amusing memory though - I can understand why you'd remember that. Cool teacher, lol.