Banned Book Week 2013

I have decided to read Cormac McCarthy’s “All the Pretty Horses” for my banned book. It has been removed from a school district in KS for "vulgar language, sexual explicitness, or violent imagery that is gratuitously employed."   I will let you know how it goes.

I also just re-read Stephen King’s “Carrie”. It is on the list of most challenged books, presumable because there is sex and menstruation and violence. I read it in two days. It is a quick read because I have read it before and it is only 245 pages. I have not read it in a long time, maybe 15 – 20 years and it struck me how young Mr. King was when he wrote this book. It is well written, so I am not being disparaging, but it is obvious that he was not far from the high school kids he was writing about. It is probably why it is so good; you can feel that these are real kids, doing what kids do. Of course, Carrie is also every kid who was bullied and beaten ultimate fantasy, that you could stop the people hurting you and hurt them back. It is not healthy, but it is understandable. How much can a person take after all?

I encourage everyone to find a banned book to read and then talk about it with someone: blog, tweet, facebook, or even speak to someone in person, do whatever you use to spread your thoughts around.

Books, Books, Books

I have a great love of books (I may have mentioned this) and we (The Hub & I) have tons of books. Currently I am reading Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy. We own them all and The Hub has read them. However, I finished book 2 and I could not find book 3. It was not with the others. So I figured I would check it out of the library. However, we went to the thrift store on Monday and thought “let’s see if they have a copy”. I found 3 copies of The Golden Compass (book 1) and 2 copies of The Subtle Knife (book 2), but no Amber Spyglass. I find this interesting. Is it because people finished the 2nd book and could not go on with the series? Which I think is weird because after you have gone thorough 2 why would you stop? I mean these are not tomes which are thousands of pages long, they are young adult novels.        I can see stopping after the 1st one or starting the 1st one and not liking it, but really you get through 2… Anyway, I got it from the library.

Banned Book week is coming up, it is September 22-28th. Here is a website with more details. Everyone should have the freedom to read. We should not live in a society which is afraid of ideas. If your beliefs are so weak that you can’t defend them against the written word, maybe you need to re-evaluate them.

 

So I have to find some banned books to read.  I have been trying to decide what to read. There are some classics like “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing”, “A Farewell to Arms” and Huck Finn that I have never read, but then there are some modern ones like “Persepolis” which look good. Of course, I actually have some books lying around which I could read that I already own and have not read. I think I have “All the Pretty Horses” in the house. Or I could re-read “Slaughterhouse-Five” because it is the 50^th anniversary of its publication.

I will let you know what I decide to do.