Banned Books discussion

An excellent resource for reading up about banned books is 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature. When I worked at Half Price Books, we used it as a great reference book during Banned Book Week.

One year for BBW, we decided to show all the customers how many books have actually been banned over the years. We decided to use The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein as the basis for our project (which was banned for being 'sexist'....okay, sure).

We made a huge tree in the center of the store and hung paper apples from the ceiling with the titles of the banned books on one side of the apple and the reasons why it was banned on the other side.

People were amazed at how many books had been banned and at the absurd reasons listed. We also had a display that showed how easy it was for a book to become banned and we gave out bookmarks that said: 'WARNING: Banned Books Are Everywhere! READ ONE!!' (The back said: Side Effects of Reading Banned Books may include laughing, crying, questioning, anger, gratitude, and learning. *Build a library, not a bonfire!*)

I always thought that this would make a great project for a school or library to recreate.

That is awesome. I am so going to steal this idea to use at my school! Thanks for sharing.

That is an admirable and wonderful idea. Brilliant!

Oh my goodness! What a wonderfully enlightening way to spread the word. Thank you for sharing! <3

That is so cool. *Build a library, not a bonfire* - I love that. It is amazing how stupid some of the reasons are. I heard of a picture book in which everyone was portrayed as animals that was banned because the police were pigs. Yeah, pretty sad. And since when was the giving tree sexist?

My local library did something similar. I went there to check out the "Freedom Writers' Diary" and I was shocked to learn it was banned. There is a whole display of banned books, a lot of which I have read and was surprised at the revelation.

I also couldn't believe when my library banned the Twilight Saga. It didn't effect me because I owned the series, but all my friends didn't appreciate it.

Charity wrote: "An excellent resource for reading up about banned books is 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature. When I worked at Half Price Books, we used it as a great reference boo..."

Books are also banned by 'topic' without reference to the name of the book. Books which are anti-government, anti-religion (the country's relgion), and which represent beliefs opposed to the particular ruling oligarchy are all banned in various countries. Moreover the reading of some books will engender suspicion, and you may end up on a list of those to 'watch' just because you have read something.

Banning is not confined by title.

I just read a great book called "Banned Books" by Robert P. Doyle. It gives great descriptions of why books were banned. I can't believe how many books have been band and some of the really stupid reasons for the bans.

I know! Books are how ideas are formed. Books is why are society is where it is today. Books are Life!!!!

(our society)

Liz wrote: "(our society)"

'Our society' is very diverse. Some live in splendor and some live under blankets in the desert ... dispossesed of all that they have ever had.

Books can change this.

without books humans would no longer be superior to animals

that is the only thing that separates us

Liz wrote: "without books humans would no longer be superior to animals

that is the only thing that separates us"

Not quite. Animals cannot deceive themselves and are rarely if ever evil. This is the dark side of humanity.

Plus they don't have thumbs...well, most of them anyways.

And animals tend not to wear shoes or hats...or work magic.
Here are 2 quotes from uncle Carl:

"A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic."
Carl Sagan


"Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insights and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. Public libraries depend on voluntary contributions. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries. "
Carl Sagan

I haven't yet read anything by Uncle Carl, but after reading those quotes I think I would like to add him to my TBR list. What would you recommend for a newbie Barbarossa?

Kristi wrote: "I haven't yet read anything by Uncle Carl, but after reading those quotes I think I would like to add him to my TBR list. What would you recommend for a newbie Barbarossa?"

Cosmos is very good, but slightly dated in places.
Probably more in tune with the group would be: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

Charity, that was an awesome idea. I will be sending a link to my librarian. We have a very small library that is only open a couple days a week but I think a varied version of this would be fantastic.

I've got this one book that I saw in a bargain bin, Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds, which is an encyclopedia of challenged and banned books due to sexual content. There seem to be 3 others in the series, Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds,Literature Suppressed on Political Grounds, and Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds.

The one I've got has all the pertinent information of the book, a summary, then a quick overview of its censorship history. Really interesting reading.