Die American Library Association hat den heutigen 14. November zum National Game Day, dem Jahrestag des Computerspiels ausgerufen. Und dass es sich hier nicht etwa um Brett- sondern um gewalthaltige Computer- und Videospiele handelt, erfahren wir von der Präsidentin der ALA, Dr. Camila Alire.

Sie verweist auf “Killerspiele” wie Assassin’s Creed (pic) oder die diversen Weltkrieg-II-Shooter, die jungen Bibliotheksbesuchern Kontakt zu historischen Themen, Anreiz zum Lesen und den Drang zu kritischem Denken vermitteln würden.

Na, wenn das so ist, feiern wir doch gerne mit, oder?

( reuters via crunchgear)

Let’s face it, we love our video games. The gaming industry is one of the largest entertainment industries in the world. With power houses in Asia, America and Europe, there is not a place in the world not touched by the wonderful awesomeness of video games. It is only fitting that video games get their own national day status. According to the following article by By John Gaudiosi published by Reuters, the American Library Association has declared November 14 “National Gaming Day”!

Gary Keith Brubaker, a lecturer in game study at The Guildhall at SMU in Texas, said historical games always have to try to balance accuracy and fun.

“Just as movies about the past adapt the story to medium, so do games. However as limited as this history is, it can be a gateway for further exploration and interest for players,” said Brubaker.

Although no data examines historical games as a genre, Michael Pachter, videogame analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, estimates games incorporating history into their stories have made up about 10 percent of overall sales over the past year.

The American Library Association (ALA) has realized this link, offering people the chance to play games and learn more about the real stories behind them. It has earmarked November 14 as National Gaming Day at U.S. libraries.

You can read the rest of the story here …

If you are interested in dragons and loved such books as Dragons of Pern or Eragon, then this up and coming novel I wrote will captivate like never before. It will be released and found at all on-line bookstore in March of 2010. 

Also please check out my other two novels, West’s Time Machine & George’s Pond.

Wests Time Machine Novel: http://www.amazon.com/Wests-Time-Machine-Scott-Waring/dp/0595418872

Georges Pond Novel: www.amazon.com/Georges-Pond-Created-Tradition-Charlottes/dp/0595421350

There are about 600 items included in this collection.  The vast majority of the posters are printed on thick paper.  There were 3 Red Cross stiffened cardboard cut outs with stands attached on the back to hold them up.  One series of movie posters were in a book form.  The range in size was from the oversize of 4 x 5 feet to a few very small ones 9 x 12 inches.  The posters were opened up and foldered.  Most were put back into the map case.  A few oversize posters were sandwiched between two pieces of foam board and placed on top the map cases.  A number of smaller ones were foldered and placed in two newspaper boxes.

Many of the posters from the first and second world wars were made from original lithographs that were signed by the artist.  One of the artists is Joseph Christian Leyendecker.  Born in Germany in 1874, he lived in the United States from 1883.  He studied art in Chicago and Paris and became famous for his illustrations on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.  He created a number of lithographs for the United States Fuel Administration and the Third Liberty Loan that would become widely distributed posters during the First World War.  Mr. Leyendecker died in 1951.

James Montgomery Flagg was born in Westchester County, NY in 1877.  He was considered a child prodigy and was illustrating magazines at the age of 12.  He would later study art in New York and Paris.  He is responsible for the most famous war poster of all time.  It pictured Uncle Sam saying “I want you for the U.S. Army”.  He died in 1960.

Charles Buckles Falls was born in Indiana in 1874.  His works include advertising; cover illustrations, murals, and a series of historical portraits for the New York State Office in Albany.  His “Books Wanted” poster was created in twenty-four hours and was issued by the American Library Association.  He died in 1960.

Howard Chandler Christy was born in 1873 in Morgan County, Ohio in 1873.  He studied at the New York Academy of Design and the Art Students League.  The Christy Girls appeared as an illustration in “The Soldier’s Dream” Scribner’s Magazine at the time of the Spanish-American War.  His recruiting posters for the First World War utilized women as a dignified figure personifying country, liberty, or freedom. He died in 1952.

J. Allen St. John was born in Chicago in 1872 and studied in New York and Paris.  His bloody handprint was a very effective agent of anti-German propaganda.

No, not me.  Though I am fahbulous. 

Mike Rowe from the show Dirty Jobs.  Apparently, he’s getting a lot of speaking jobs lately talking about “on the “changing face of the proletariat vis-à-vis the modern-day work ethic and the digital divide”, according to the New York Times and he has a website called Mike Rowe Works, which helps people find technical and trade jobs and education.

General Link: http://www.mikeroweworks.com/noflash.html
Jobs Link: http://www.mikeroweworks.com/job-site/

It’s a well rounded site and like most truly funny people, Mike Rowe is an intelligent and thoughtful spokesperson for the cause of worker education and job seeking.  Well, from what I can tell from the article I’ve been reading.

Librarians help people find work, Mike Rowe helps people find work.  Librarians help provide training and tools for people to improve themselves with, so does Mike Rowe.  Mike Rowe is hot and really funny.  Librarians are…er…we’re sometimes hot and usually pretty funny.

Just my suggestion.  Please consider it if your state or national library organization needs a speaker.  There’s potential for great synergy I think.

Last month (September 2009), the American Library Association (ALA) sponsored Banned Books Week, an initiative purporting to promote intellectual freedom, which it defined as “the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular.”  Yet even while it was busy promoting the event to draw attention to “the harms of censorship,” it was immersed in a separate stealth campaign to suppress intellectual freedom and to marginalize a dissenting voice.

On July 12, 2009, Robert Spencer, the editor of JihadWatch.com and author of the recently published “The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran,” was invited to join a panel forum at the ALA’s annual General Meeting on the topic “Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping.”

As he was leaving to catch a plane for the event, Spencer learned that it had been cancelled.  According to reports he later read on the Internet, Ahmed Rehab, Chicago executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was responsible for bringing about the cancellation.  In a letter to ALA, Rehab wrote:  “I ask you to rescind the invitation to Mr. Spencer in order to maintain the integrity of the panel and the reputation of the ALA.”  Mr. Spencer, he argued, offered “grotesque viewpoints that lie well outside the bounds of reason and civilized debate.”

Emerging from an intense period of preparing for presentations at the American Library Association (ALA) 2009 Conference in Chicago this summer and the American Society for Training & Development Chapter Leader Conference to be held in Arlington at the end of this month (along with many other projects),  I’ve just rejoined my colleagues writing for the ALA Learning Round Table blog.

What has drawn me back to blogging is a desire to document the magnificent results coming from trainers’ collaborations. A key to our continuing successes in providing first-rate training opportunities through workshops, conferences, and other endeavors is that workplace learning and performance professionals seem to thrive on a fine combination of defining roles and remaining willing to step in as needed whenever time allows.

To see this process in action, you can read the entire piece at the ALA Learning blog, then continue on the same site to see what other trainers are producing.

Hello again.  I am eager to tell you about a wonderful upcoming event at the West Palm Beach Public Library:  92YLive – Mitch Albom: Have a Little Faith.  It will be held in the library auditorium (3rd Floor) on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 7:45 PM.

I highly recommend that you try to attend this event.  I had the privilege of hearing Mitch Albom talk at an American Library Association conference a few years ago, and he was absolutely fantastic – one of the most moving and delightful experiences ever!  A really memorable occasion!  He is not only a great writer but an enthralling public speaker: inspiring, fascinating, and entertaining. He had all of us in the audience laughing, crying, and frequently doing both at once!

Mitch Albom is as gifted a speaker as he is a writer.  He brings to life the connection between his sports writing and human interest stories of empathy and drama in such books as Tuesdays with Morrie and Five People You Meet in Heaven.  His new book Have a Little Faith proves to become another great read.  I plan on attending this event on November 4 if at all possible.  For anyone who wants to be truly entertained (and enlightened!), it is strongly recommended.  Come and share this and many other terrific events with the Library Friends.  Enjoy!

Have a Little Faith: Mitch Albom

Writer and broadcaster Mitch Albom, the author of Tuesdays with Morrie (the best-selling memoir of all time with more than 14 million copies sold), The Five People You Meet in Heaven and For One More Day, has become an inspiration to millions of people around the world. His forthcoming book is Have a Little Faith: A True Story of a Last Request. Albom is a columnist for the Detroit Free Press and the host of two radio shows that are broadcast in 38 states.

Live from NY’s 92nd Street (92YLive) is a live, satellite-broadcast event, that allows people all over the nation to access the Y’s cultural and educational programs. This event is ongoing, with our first program being the Forum on Sustainable Global Enterprise.

This program will provide an opportunity for the audience to ask questions of the presenters, as if they were in the New York audience.  For more information about the 92YLive programs go to http://www.92y.org/live

Friends members can attend for $5.00, the General Public can attend for $10.00.

Remember, Friends receive email notices and reminders of events and can access many events at discounted prices or attend for free.

To register, please visit the website of our Friends group:  http://www.friendswpblibrary.org/

Esther Fawn Van Allen, Reference Librarian
West Palm Beach Public Library

Every year the American Library Association hosts the Banned Books Week. This took place last week, and while books can no longer be banned, there are still challenges to this decision. So for today, I thought I would go through my bookshelf and make note of all the “banned” books I own.

There are of course, many more. And you can visit their website if you want to know more about banned books.

Do you have any on your bookshelf?

During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores across the U.S. call attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events.

Sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores, and endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress, the 2009 celebration of Banned Books Week is this week– September 26 through October 3.

Visit BannedBooksWeek.org for more info– and Just Say No to “No”…

As we remind ourselves that if we don’t use our freedoms we lose them, we might recall that this is a bad day to try to renew one’s visa for India; all government offices are closed in observance of the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi, Indian philosopher and civil rights activist, born on this date in 1869.

If we believe in ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ we will end up being a society of blind, toothless people.
–Gandhi

The Mahatma

Did you know that September 28th-October 3rd, 2009, is the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week?

The week celebrates the freedom we have to express our opinions— even if the opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. Banned Books Week brings attention to the challenges that have been presented to this freedom by celebrating books which have been attempted to be banned in libraries across the country.

This year, the Student Activities Office and Brown Library are partnering on our campus to recognize Banned Books Week and the freedom to read!

Check out the following events:

ALL WEEK

• Participate in the Word-of-the-Week Contest. Stop by the library this week to see the featured word and create a clever and funny definition for it. (We want your definition of the word, not the real definition.) Contest entrants get a chance to win a cool t-shirt from the American Library Association. Students, faculty, and staff are all welcome to participate! (Entries must be recieved by 3pm on Friday, October 2nd. There will be one student winner and one faculty/staff winner, and they will be notified this Friday.)
• Visit Our Display on the Main Floor. See some examples of books that have been banned and find out the reasons behind it.

MONDAY, 9/28

• Make Your Own Photo Bookmark. 10am-2pm, Brown Library steps. First 100 participants receive a free banned book. Choice of following titles: The Kite Runner, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, To Kill a Mockinbird, Fahrenheit 451, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

WEDNESDAY, 9/30

• Papermaking. 10am-2pm, Brown Library steps. Use the art of papermaking to create your own bookmark or sheet of paper, using a variety of materials.

THURSDAY, 10/1

• Film Showing: Good Night, and Good Luck. 1pm, library classroom. This award-winning film stars George Clooney and portrays the drama of journalists who provided critical commentary against popular opinion of the time. 93 minutes.

FRIDAY, 10/2

• Word-of-the-Week Contest winners chosen!

…and start reading now for the upcoming Banned Book Club! The first meeting will be Wednesday, October 21, at 6pm (location tbd). The book to be discussed will be The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Roy both won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and faced an obscenity trial in her native India for this, her first novel. Club open to students, faculty, and staff.

The Brown Library has many books which have been challenged and banned, including:

• Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Call number E185.97.A56 A3 1971
• Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. Call number PS3537.T3234 O4
• Voltaire. Candide, or, Optimism. Call number PQ2082.C3 E5 2005
• Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Call number PS3563.O8749 B55 1993
• Lawrence, D.H. Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Call number PR6023.A93 L2
• Walker, Alice. The Color Purple: A Novel. Call number PS3573.A425 C6 1982
• Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Call number PS3537.A426 C32 1961
• King, Stephen. Christine. Call number PS3561.I483 C4 1983
• Eliot, George. Silas Marner; : The Weaver of Raveloe. Call number PR4670.A1 1967

For a short history of attempts at censoring books, please see The Online Books Page Presents Banned Books Online at the University of Pennsylvania. Included in this page are links to the actual texts of these works, available for free online.

While I have my various gripes with the way our government works, there is one part of our founding documents that I am behind with universal support: the First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Or something along those lines. It’s a principle that, while it does allow some bloated idiots to gab off at the top of their lungs on news networks, ensures that the development of ideas can continue without intervention and that these ideas can flow out and be discussed to the benefit of all. Plus, as a writer myself, I enjoy that it allows me to say things that would get me kicked out of some other countries or pushed into a tiny little room below the dictator’s palace.

As such, Banned Books Week (September 27-October 3 this year) is an event that has a special place in my heart. Sponsored by the American Library Association, the week-long celebration “highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted banning of books across the United States.” In addition to reminding us of prior censorship efforts going back to the 1920s, it also reminds us of the continuing efforts to remove books from libraries on various grounds.

And those efforts are still going on, sadly not dying out with the obscenity trials that allowed “Tropic of Cancer” and “Naked Lunch” to be disseminated in this country free of persecution. The ALA makes such a thing perfectly clear in its graph of reported instances, which reminds me of a road trip gone horribly wrong – cities marked with books that parents and community organizations have tried to pull from the shelves, many of which are award-winners that have been present on the shelves for years.

Out of curiosity this week I scouted out the ALA website to see what has fallen on the roster of banned titles. While the site has a variety of bans relating to contemporary authors I was more interested in the classics, being as that’s the majority of my shelf’s population – I wanted to know what I own that some fire-breathing morality group would consider unfit to have in the same county as a small child.

And the results were pretty impressive. At some point over the last few decades, all of these books which I own and have enjoyed have come up against battles to either take out of schools or even be banned from the country in older times: “The Great Gatsby,” “1984,” “A Brave New World,” “The Sun Also Rises,” “As I Lay Dying,” “A Farewell to Arms,” “Naked Lunch,” “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “In Cold Blood,” “Heart of Darkness,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Lord of the Rings” and “Tropic of Cancer” are just the ones at first glance that fell on the challenge list.

A few thoughts flitted through my mind thinking about this: do censors just hate my bookshelf? Is it a prerequisite of a book being a classic for it to be attacked? Should I be investing in a nice locked glass door to cover the shelf? In any case, it offends my sensibilities to the nth degree to see that books like these – which have had a variety of dramatic effects on me over the years – could have come close to being taken out of my hands.

In my life, there hasn’t been a single book that I’d claim has had a negative effect on me – in many cases, it’s expanded my school of thought in very constructive ways by getting them early. If I found “Slaughterhouse-Five” when I was 10 instead of 20, I’m willing to bet its effect would have been positive and allowed for a little more creative thought in my English classes. Then again, I’d also say the same thing about “Naked Lunch” so perhaps they shouldn’t put me on the library board anytime soon.

What I’m saying is that my attitude towards literature tends to be libertarian in nature – I’m all for keeping overdoses of sex and violence to a more mature group, but I believe that there shouldn’t be any restrictions on what books are available in a library. Literature is something that’s made to be explored and hunted down without blockades, something that we go into blind and deserve to have our eyes opened in response. And if a child has questions, they can be dealt with in a reasoned manner – not by mothers who screech up a hissy fit every time a word pops up they fear their beloved’s little virgin ears can’t handle.

So, to honor/celebrate Banned Books Week, I’m going out to rent or buy copies of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” and J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.” These are books that have been on my reading list for ages but for some reason I’ve never gotten around to, and now seems as good a time as any to indulge. People have put in a lot of effort to give me the right to postpone reading these classics.

And your homework assignment, due on Monday, is to do the same – check out the ALA websites and lists, and get your hands on one or two challenged books. No one’s going take your books away from you any time soon, but a lot of people have fought battles to make sure they can’t. Take a couple hours out of your day and pay them back.

Update: Boing Boing has provided a list of the most challenged titles of 2008, along with a little background on each.

Les Chappell may disagree with what you say, but he will defend to the death your right to print and publish it and have it read by anyone who feels so inclined. Feel free to agree or disagree with him at lmchappell@gmail.com.

Banned: And Tango Makes Three

Since 2001, a whopping 3,736 books have been banned by the American Library Association. Banned books include those in the Harry Potter series, Tim Pullman novels, and many others.

Banned Books Week

In recent years, And Tango Makes Three – based on a true story and centring on gay penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo – has had the most ban requests.

“It’s regrettable that some parents believe reading a true story about two male penguins hatching an egg will damage their children’s moral development. They are entitled to express their beliefs, but not to inflict them on others.” Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell authors of And Tango Makes Three

Banned Books Week has always been something of an important event for me, on an unofficial level. Walking into my local library at this time of year, my eyes are always drawn to the posters announcing the beginning of BBW, often featuring the covers of banned books or quotes that condemn censorship. I will freely admit that I have some strong feelings about banning/challenging books. Generally, I am a levelheaded and calm person, but there are a few things that make me pretty angry, and censorship is one of them. It is something that gets under my skin and irritates me until I feel the urge to go for a long walk or punch a pillow for an hour or so. I suppose someone could argue that I need to straighten out my priorities—what with people starving in third world countries and the rainforests being decimated, how can I possibly think about books? Books are not a matter of life and death…well, at least, not to a young American woman who grew up in a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle, now are they?

Fine, you can argue that. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be angry about censorship. I have an intimate relationship with books—I’ve been reading them since the age of five. They have taught me and bored me and helped me and angered me and consoled me and amused me and, above all, fascinated me for nearly two decades, and that is something to which I can relate. There are plenty of crusades and causes to choose from in this world; I have simply chosen the one I feel most strongly about. Passionate people make a difference, and I am choosing the place where I can be most passionate so that I can make a difference.

Fortunately for me, I live in a place where the ideals of the community mean that it is very unlikely that a book will ever be seriously challenged here. Nevertheless, it upsets me when I read a story about a novel that was banned from a school library by administrators, or a public library that is forced to shelve “inappropriate” books in a back room, away from the “sensitive” eyes of patrons. I don’t live in these places, so how can I do my part to maintain the intellectual freedom of the American public? I am not a fighter by nature. I’m not the type to drive to a faraway town to protest with signs and chants, and I’m not the type to write letters to school administrators and board members. So what will I do?

I will ask people to read banned and challenged books.

This week’s blog entries and book reviews will be focused around YA Books that have been banned in towns across the US for a myriad of reasons—strong language, sexually explicit content, violence, anti-religious views, so-called “occult/satanist content”…the list goes on and on. For those of you who who find these topics to be uncomfortable ones and who feel that perhaps these books have been banned for a good reason, just hear me out:

I think that all parents would like to believe that their teenagers know less than they actually do. I have a younger sister who is quickly approaching teenage-dom and all that comes with it, and I often find myself wanting to cover her ears or her eyes sometimes because (in my mind) it was only a couple of years ago that she was crawling around on the floor wearing diapers. This is what makes the issue of banned books an interesting one for me, since I truly do empathize with the parents who are uncomfortable with their children being exposed to “unsuitable” content. And yet, having recently been a teenager myself, I believe that parents need to push themselves to accept that their babies are growing up and will soon be exposed to a world in which there are people who DO swear on a regular basis and DO use drugs and DO have sex. What parents also have to realize is that teenagers are often exposed to these very topics on a daily basis, whether or not they choose to “participate” in them or to talk about them with Mom and Dad (remember, teens are not renowned for communicating well with their “parental units”). For teens who have to deal with issues that may seem shocking to those around them (drug abuse, homosexuality, rape, etc.), YA books on these topics can provide support by showing them characters who have to confront the same problems. For other teens, such books can be a window into the matters that their friends and parents may be unwilling to discuss with them. Believe it or not, reading about behavior that parents may find disturbing does not encourage teens to engage in said behavior (acclaimed YA author John Green explains this well in his videoblog entry, appropriately entitled, “I Am Not a Pornographer”). Because the reasons for book challenges are so varied, I want to make as few generalizations as possible, but I will say this: banned and challenged books are an excellent way to begin a discussion. Parents, if you are disturbed by something your teen is reading, sit down with your kid and talk about it and why it makes you uncomfortable. Better yet, read the book yourself, and do your best to read it the way you would read any other book (rather than searching for reasons to dislike it). Creating a dialogue about the book is infinitely preferable to simply declaring the book to be “unsuitable”.

Recently, I came across a website called SafeLibraries.org. The Safe Libraries organization states that, among other things, “So-called “young adult” [YA] literature has, in recent years, taken a turn toward material inappropriate for children.” Their main point, especially in the boldly-titled article “Porn Pushers”, seems to be the fact that the American Library Association (ALA) defines YA literature as covering an age range from 12-18 years of age. “In Orwellian fashion,” the article states, “pre-teens have skipped over their teenage years and become adults.  At least that’s what the ALA would have us believe.” In addition to the confusing choice of adjective (how exactly did George Orwell promote the redefinition of “pre-teen”?), I find the alarmist tone of this statement to be irrational, irritating, and nonsensical. The phrase “young adult” does not mean the same thing as “adult”, hence the fact that it used to describe a genre of books that are (wow, you guessed it) not written with an adult audience in mind. One could argue the semantics of this endlessly, but the point is that it’s a completely irrelevant argument. This quote also mentions “pre-teens” (which, I might specify, only applies to the 12-year olds mentioned in the genre age-range), and says that they have “skipped over their teenage years and become adults”. This is, of course, for the aforementioned reasons, simply not true. What is more, twelve is the age by which most girls have entered puberty, and the issues of teenagers can often be quite relevant to a girl who looks old enough to be one. Please do not get me wrong—I am not suggesting that twelve-year olds should necessarily be encouraged to read books with “Rated R” content. I can think of a number of YA books that I would not encourage my twelve-year old sister to read, and I don’t think that she would want to read them (parents, trust your kids—they know their boundaries, and if they can’t handle something, they won’t push themselves). However, my point is that twelve-year olds should not be forbidden to read those books if they truly want to. And that, my friends, is why banning books upsets me.

That’s enough of a rant on my part. I’ll be posting the first of my book reviews soon. Until then, go forth and read! Oh, and be sure to check out this blog entry (regarding the book Uncle Bobby’s Wedding), where a librarian responds—with wonderful respect, understanding, and courtesy—to a patron’s challenge of a children’s book. Plus, keep your eyes peeled for a list of my favorite banned/challenged books (I may not get around to reviewing them all this week, but you should still check them out)!

Best wishes, as always,

-Madeline

“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.” 

- Voltaire

It’s Banned Books Week!  According to the American Library Association, 42 of the top 100 classics of the 20th Century have been banned or challenged.

Skimming the list, I’d have to say that my favorite of the bunch (that I’ve read) is George Orwell’s 1984.  I’d suspect 2 other particular books might be my favorites—someday—if I would just read them already.  Those books shall remain nameless, since no self-respecting person with an English degree would admit they’ve never read those particular titles.

As for my least favorite: Joseph Conrad’s godawful Heart of Darkness.

What’s your favorite banned book? The 42 challenged books after the jump:

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
23. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
38. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
64. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
66. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
75. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike

This week is banned book week.  September 26- October 3

What? You didn’t know that?… It’s ok.  People don’t read books as much as they used to, but they will read tweets and little article snippets and also read junk that people blog about… like you are doing right now.

that book?

A banned book is defined as a book that has been either censored or banned by an organization or business.  Banning can happen at almost any level whether it be a local librarian, church or school district to a business like Barnes & Noble. I was surprised what I found on the list.

I had never really looked at a list of books that were considered banned books, but I decided to dig a little further this time. I knew that controversial books like ones questioning the existence of God and others talking about witchcraft (Harry Potter) would be on the list, but I was surprised to find how many of the books on the list I had actually read. I must have gone to a liberal school according to this list.  I was surprised by the sheer number of books that were regular parts of my education as a kid.

what are you afraid of?

The proponents of book banning feel so strongly, because some of these books don’t follow along with their “moral code”.  I’m not questioning their moral fiber or even what they should or shouldn’t believe.  For some reason we decided, a while back, what was good for people and what was bad for people.  If you grew up reading every type of book I think you would have a better chance deciding what was good for yourself and what wasn’t.

We ban books because we are scared of how much children should really know at a certain age, but why are worried about books changing that.  I grew up reading many books that might’ve been above my maturity level, but it didn’t screw me up if anything it got me asking questions.  And that’s how children actually learn… they ask questions. I’m the first to say I wouldn’t want my kid reading the secrets of Kama Sutra in second grade, but I believe that’s another whole issue.

As a kid you don’t really realize what a large deal this actually is, but when you are being told what you can and can’t read and you just think that’s the way it’s supposed to be.  I remember that my elementary school librarian would go through some books and mark out the curse words.  If anything it just made me more curious what it was. This is how I learned the proper context for curse words, and this practice stifled many children to read.

We shouldn’t ban books.  If anything we should embrace them.  To ban them is to fear the very nature of discussion that the book will create.  We fear, because there is something ethereal and gorgeous about a book that we can’t quite explain.  The emotion and thoughts that they incite are like nothing else.  We cannot fear something we don’t understand.  If anything we should continue to dig further and find out what makes this book, that issue so fearful and that is where the real learning happens.

I have a strong feeling about this, but it isn’t because I see the damage book banning can do as much as I can see the great gift a book can be.

For more info check out the American Library Association’s Web-site and your local library.  If you don’t know where your local library is…. tsk tsk.

With so many causes in the world when you hear about a new cause it may seem overwhelming at first to figure out what you can do to help and how to find out more.  Banned Books Week has been around since 1982 and many people still don’t know it exists, or that it is a cause that could use your help.  The dedication of librarians, teachers, students and bookstore owners around the country have helped keep over a thousand books from being banned from the public and has recorded over 10,000 challenges since 1990 (some books have been challenged multiple times to be banned).  While 1,000 may not seem like that high of a number even one book being banned from a public library or school is censorship.  Every book may not be intended for every reader, but each of us (or our parents) should make the decision on what is right for us to read – one individual should not make the decision for all.

The observance of Banned Books Weeks is celebrating the freedom to read freely—and encourages us not to take this freedom for granted.  So what can you do this week to participate?  Below is a list of ideas and websites from the ALA, as well as a few from Junkie2, to get you started.

Stay informed. If you read or hear about a challenge at your school or public library, support your librarian and free and open access to library materials. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom estimates they learn of only 20 to 25 percent of book challenges. Let them know if there is a challenge in your community. Find out what the policy is for reviewing challenged materials at your school or public library. Join the Intellectual Freedom Action News (IFACTION) e-list.

• Banned Books Week official website.
• American Library Association’s Banned Books Week homepage.

Help spread the word about Banned Books Week by downloading the Banned Books web badges on our Free Downloads page and hosting them on your blogs and home pages. You can also create a public service announcement (see their sample PSA script for ideas).

• The power of the interweb makes this incredibly easy, even if you aren’t a blogger.  Take to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and the like and get the word out there to your friends and family about Banned Books Week.
• Find easy to copy and paste sample messages here.

Get involved. Go to school board meetings. Volunteer to help your local school or public library create an event that discusses the freedom to read and helps educate about censorship—maybe a First Amendment film festival, a readout, a panel discussion, an author reading or a poster contest for children illustrating the concept of free speech.

Speak out. Write letters to the editor, your public library director and your local school principal supporting the freedom to read. Talk to your neighbors and friends about why everyone should be allowed to choose for themselves and their families what they read. Encourage your governor, city council and/or mayor to proclaim “Banned Books Week – Celebrating the Freedom to Read” in your state or community.

Exercise your rights! Check out or re-read a favorite banned book. Encourage your book group to read and discuss one of the books. Give one of your favorite books as a gift.

• Start a book club or reading group!
  • Barnes & Noble teaches you how
  • Simon & Schuster provide resources.
  • These ladies on WordPress have the right idea, reading is hot!  Start your own blog to talk about books with your friends, its easy to do and great if you and your friends have differing schedules or are too far away to meet regularly.
  • Oprah’s Book Club Don’t knock it cause it has that little  ”O Approved” sticker on it, she [i.e. probably her producers] is quite skilled at picking books.  As a bonus those who don’t have anyone in their lives to form a book club with can participate in online forums and occasionally read/interact with the author, among other book related activities.

Join the Freedom to Read Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to the legal and financial defense of intellectual freedom, especially in libraries. You can also support the cause by buying Banned Books Week posters, buttons and T-shirts online.

Read with your Children: many books that are challenged are children’s books.  Don’t be caught off guard if your child happens to read a book that’s topic may either go against what you believe or create questions you aren’t ready to answer.  Pick out books with your kids.  Read them first or read with them.  Be prepared.

• List of most commonly challenged children and young adult books
• What to Read When A new book by Pam Allyn
  • One of the keys to raising a lifetime reader is matching the right book to the right moment in a child’s young life. With more than 8,000 children’s titles being published each year, that “matching” can be overwhelmingly difficult—unless they have this wonderful compendium from Pam Allyn. More than a book, it’s a “brass compass” to great children’s literature. - Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook
• Librarian’s blog entry responding to a parent’s request to not carry the book “My Uncle Bobby’s Wedding”.
  • “In short, most of the books we have are designed not to interfere with parents’ notions of how to raise their children, but to support them. But not every parent is looking for the same thing.”
  • “Library collections don’t imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life.”

READ! Already a big reader?  Or are you interested in reading, but don’t want to waste your time with a book that could be bad?  Find the next book you should read by checking out these links:

• What should I read next? Enter a book you like and the site will analyze their database of real readers’
  favourite books (over 65,000 and growing) to suggest what you could read next.
• Which book Are you in the mood for happy or sad?  Funny or serious?  Safe or Disturbing?  Short or long?  Find a book to fit your mood by choosing from a scale what you’re in the mood for from 12 different fields.  A completely new way of choosing what to read.
• Newsweek tells you what to read now, and why.
• Entertainment Weekly (little junkies’ media bible) provides review on new releases.
• Oprah’s Book Club Don’t knock it cause it has that little  ”O Approved” sticker on it, she [i.e. probably her producers] are quite skilled at picking books.  As a bonus those who don’t have anyone in their lives to form a book club with can participate in online forums and occasionally read/interact with the author, among other book related activities.
• Book Lists Galore
  • Newsweek’s top 100 – a meta list
  • Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) provides you with a list of lists ranging from award winners to Best/Popular/Top lists
  • New York Times Best Sellers Includes Best Seller lists for:  Graphic Books, Children’s Books, Hardcover Non-Fiction, Hard Cover Fiction, Paperback Fiction, Paperback Trade Fiction, Paperback Mass-Market Fiction,  Paperback/Hardcover Advice, etc.
  • Everyman’s Library lists and collections of classics.
  • 100 Best Books by some random guy.
  • Lists of Bests Lists of Bests is a place where you can : Create a list of your favorite products, places, people, goals, food, etc., mark off your progress on an existing list, compare your progress on a list with someone else.
  • Rory Gilmore’s Book List!
• Create your own book list and track everything you’ve read, everything you own, everything you want to read AND be able to interact with friends and authors:
  • Good Reads (favorite of J1 and J2)
    • Have you ever wanted a better way to:
      • Get great book recommendations from people you know.
      • Keep track of what you’ve read and what you’d like to read.
      • Form a book club, answer book trivia, collect your favorite quotes.
  • Shelfari A social network for people who love books.
  • Library Thing A home for your books, a community of 850,000 book lovers.

The American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the ALA; the American Society of Journalists and Authors; the Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores sponsor Banned Books Week. The Library of Congress Center for the Book endorses the observance.

American libraries are the cornerstones of our democracy. Libraries are for everyone, everywhere. Because libraries provide free access to a world of information, they bring opportunity to all people. Now, more than ever, celebrate the freedom to read @ your library! Read an old favorite or a new banned book this week.

Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove

Perks of Being a Wallflower was banned for homosexuality. Photo from amazon.com.

There’s nothing better than getting completely, lose-yourself  immersed in a good book. Avid readers alike will agree. Add a little controversy to that and you’ve got yourself a Banned Book Week.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), “the books featured during Banned Book Week have been targets of attempted bannings.  Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections.”

As far as Banned Book Week 2009 is concerned, here is a select list of controversial books that were chosen:

• And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell.   
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis  
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
• The Koran

These are just a few titles. If you wanted to do a comprehensive search on the internet of all books that have ever been banned or attempted to ban, you’d find thousands.

Banned Book Week finishes up on October 3rd. Make sure you get out there and grab yourself one of those forbidden books before then!

Via (my mom) The Quilted Librarian:

It’s Banned Books Week, today through Oct. 3. Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book. It’s smackdown time for small-minded ninnies, an annual festival for driving Teh Stoopid into the darkest recesses of our culture.

I’m kind of a fan. Perhaps it shows. And I could go on about this, but I’ll leave you with just a couple of thoughts:

Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.
– Alfred Whitney Griswold, New York Times, 24 February 1959

I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.
– Jorge Luis Borges