I Read Banned Books

It's Banned Book week through the 2nd of October. I am a little late in posting this, but I have been busy reading a book and creating the added materials it offered in a convenient (for me) electronic format. So deal with it.

Every year, the American Library Association (ALA) sponsors Banned Book Week, where library patrons are encouraged to read one of the many, many books challenged in libraries around the country. Specifically, the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom puts this together. How awesome is it that they have an Office of Intellectual Freedom?
Lots of other organizations have gotten on board with Banned Book Week, and the names won't surprise you - the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, and National Association of College Stores. These are just the organizations that are officially sponsors of Banned Book Week on a national level. It is also endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

I live in a small town in Oregon, with a population between four and five thousand. The demographics skew older, as yours truly withstanding, Coquille is primarily a retirement community. Our local library has a large print section bigger than what I'm used to in Multnomah and Hennepin County libraries, but that seems reasonable, and I read a lot more because of it. (My peepers, they ain't what they used to be.) But, if you think that the size of the town and the age the library caters to would make Banned Book Week minor, or non-existant, you are very wrong.
I personally have felt that the community is fairly conservative - there are far more "Dudley" lawn-signs than "Kitzhaber" ones, and if at least two of your five cars aren't pick-ups, it better be because they are all fully restored classics. (Classic cars are a big deal on the Sourthern Oregon Coast.) Now, I'm willing to grant that library patrons are not a representational sub-grouping of the larger community, but how far off could it be? I hear politics talked about a lot by the octogenarian crowd, to which I've learned three things - Palin in 2012, don't touch our Social Security, and who would ban a book? Two out of three ain't bad.
The library started off the week with 100 "I read banned books" pins. When I finally grabbed mine yesterday, there were only seven left in the bowl. Plus, while I was at the desk working with a librarian to find me a banned book that was in large print, the lady behind confessed that she had just come in to pick-up a DVD she had on hold, but could she put a hold on one of the books that was suggested to me. That rocked. Good job Elizabeth, our enthusiastic and persuasive librarian.

This year I'm going to read two banned books. Well, I guess I should say two more banned books, as I just found out that the Harry Potter series had been challenged and banned in some places; which I guess doesn't surprise me since I knew that some religious groups were against the first book and also the films. The same goes for the "His Dark Materials" series, I'm guessing for the same reason as the Harry Potter books. I also read "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns", which I knew were banned in Afghanistan, but in the U.S.? And as soon as I can find a large print copy of "The Satanic Verses", I will reread that, not counting it towards my banned book quota. I'm picking two banned books to read because the ALA maintains a "classics" list and a "contemporary" list. I think one of each is appropriate, and the only other self-imposed stipulation is that they choices be something I haven't read before. For my classics choice, I've chosen Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness". I had a copy of this once, but never read it. Well, starting this evening I will be rectifying that, as I put "Contact" by Carl Sagan on hold for a couple of days. For my contemporary choice, I haven't decided yet, but it won't be one of the "Twilight" books. Interestingly, the top 10 challenged books for the last decade contain three classics ("To Kill a Mockingbird", "The Catcher in the Rye" and "The Color Purple") so I will eliminate them from my contemporary choices, not to mention I've already the first two, and there is no large print version of the third (but I've requested the library buy one). Without having seen the whole list with hundreds of choices, I'm leaning toward "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things" or "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" but I don't know if they have these in large print (the library does have them though).

ALA's lists of challenged books~
Classics
PDFs of the last couple of year's lists