Day 14- A Book that should be on a highschool/college required reading list.
Banned books, all of them. Like Captain Underpants and the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary. It's comprehensive, sssshhhh, don't tell.
Here's a list of banned "classics" from the American Library Association. Books that have been read by yours truly are highlighted boldly.
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
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were 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 *I've got a great story about this one!!!
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
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess *Saw the movie, but haven't read yet.
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
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
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
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
See the missing spots? Those were books that were on this list of "classics" but were not banned. Books like Charlotte's Web and Winnie-ther-Pooh. It's a list of the 20th century's 100 top novels... you can see it here if you like.
Here's a list of books that might surprise you that they are banned: (link) (also are bolded)
Lord of the Rings
Fahrenheit 451
Harry Potter series
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
James and the Giant Peach (LOOOOOVE IT!)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
American Heritage Dictionary *But I have read most of it.
Really, I should read Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses... because that's the book that got the death threat/fatwa/jihad on his ass since 1989...AND HE'S STILL GOING STRONG!
What banned books have you read or want to?
You are quite the reader miss Mollie! :) I have read a few of these!
ReplyDeleteI read Lolita when we were living in Russia. It was a hard one to read because of the subject matter but he is such a good writer.
ReplyDeleteI checked out Lady Chatterly's Lover from the public library when I found out it was on the banned list at our highschool. I think our teacher gave us the banned list on purpose so we would hunt down those books for ourselves!
I recently ordered Invisible Man (used on Amazon) and received THE Invisible Man. I like sci-fi so I didn't make a stink. But now I haven't read either of them.
ReplyDeleteHow is it that a good chunk of that list were required reading for me? Is this a new list? And why the eff is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? banned?!? Now I'm gonna have to go dig that book out of my brother's closet. Banning books is so idiotic.
ReplyDeletenm, went to the link.. and I still say banning books is idiotic!
ReplyDeleteBrown Bear? I don't get it. Book banning freaks.
ReplyDeleteWho is banning these books and who is agreeing to ban them????? I went to the link and it was still very mysterious! It's insane. Ludicrous. If what people are teaching their kids is not good enough or important enough to withstand some words that some other normal human puts on a page, then *maybe it's not good enough or important enough*!!!! Urgh! Makes me mad.
ReplyDeleteLord of the Flies was one of my all time favorites! Good choices!
ReplyDeleteBTW - There's something for you in my post today!
I can't believe Lord of the Flies was banned! Actually, I can't believe most of those books were banned--this list makes me realize I need to read more of the canonical books. Looks like you have a good start :)
ReplyDeleteI don't quite understand: is it The American Library Association who bans the books? I should probably click on the link, and will. I've read just about all of the books on this list, several are absolute favourites and I can't see why anyone would want to ban them, the rest I'm going to order this evening for my kindle, if they are available for it. If not, I can wait.
ReplyDeleteCan I tweet this post, do you have a share button lurking somewhere, this should be shared as widely as possible. Can you tell I'm agitated?
I'll go now.
There are some pretty ridiculous bans there!! I've read To Kill a Mockingbird and loved it!! I hav to admit that I'm not one for the classics as much as I try!
ReplyDeleteI've got an award for you at my blog :-) Hope you're having a good week!
UGH! I hate book banning. HATE IT!!! I think you and I would get along fabulously, because we've read many of the same books. I've been reading through your challenge posts, and I love them! Nice job.
ReplyDeleteWhy the holy heck would Brown Bear, Brown Bear be banned!?!?
hmmm most of these were on my list of suggested reading given to me by my high school Lit teacher. I actually read a good chunk of them and continue to read from it.
ReplyDelete