Hello All,
Last night, I could not sleep due to health reasons. Then the alarm went off at 4am, so Mom and I could watch The Queen’s funeral. It was incredible.
A few of my favorite books are constantly on the Banned Books list:
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Despite consistently being banned, due to language and racism, this book was voted the #1 book on PBS’s Great American Read. I was first assigned this book in elementary school, and then for several years after. I love the black and white movie, but the book is just incredible. I used to read this book once a year, but it has been a few years, and I need to do a re-read. This coming-of-age novel is a classic and an absolute must-read for all.
- The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. Okay, before I begin to dive into this series, let me tell you how, I actually came to read them. (Remember, fantasy books weren’t really my cup of tea.) So my friend in 9th grade, invited me to see a movie about a boy wizard. I couldn’t figure out why, but okay, so a group of us went to see the movie. YES, this is an incident of Seeing it, Before Reading It. I thought it cute that all these kids and even adults were dressed as witches and wizards. It was a good movie, but I couldn’t figure out all the fuss. Then my friend loaned me the first book… Flash forward to my next visit to Borders and the first 4 books in paperback with the solid-colored checkered spines were in my arms. Despite all the negative things that have come from the author, since, these books were about acceptance, appreciating what makes us different, and learning that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I read them so much, that I could pick out passages of them, when I needed a quick fix. As you can guess, these books are banned because they promote witchcraft.
- The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. What else is there to say, but: “Stay Gold, Ponyboy.” This book, written by a woman, about the cliques she faced in school, was all about maintaining innocence. Consistently banned for language and violence, this book opened eyes to the divide in society. I LOVE this movie. I love this book. I can still to this day quote several passages, despite it having been way too long since I have read it.
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Okay, so I might not have to explain why this one is consistently banned. Um, hello, violence. Here is another instance where I would not have necessarily read these books on my own, however, Mom wanted to see Lenny Kravitz in the movie, so she bought me the trilogy for Christmas. The first book took me a bit to get through, but by the time I got to the third book I read in 1 day. This series is more than just children killing one another, it is about absolute power, it is about the underdog and about fighting for what is right.
It is no surprise to me that the above books, as well as others that I will discuss this week, made it to the top 100 of The Great American Read. These books are cherished by 1000s of people. Imagine a world where banned books were successful and books like these listed above were never printed…
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
~George R.R. Martin, another author whose books have been banned