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September 29, 2005
Banned Books Week
Who knew? According to the American Library Association it's Banned Books Week!
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.
Make sure and read a banned book and tick off the crazies that think books should be burned.
Read more here.
Posted by Daffodil at September 29, 2005 9:46 PM
Comments
Turns out I've read about 50 of the top 100 banned books from 1990-2000. And have no desire to read about half of the remaining 50.
So I'm off to go read one of Diane Duane's Young Wizard books, which seem to have fallen below the sensors of those who would censor books (not enough sales, perhaps?) but definitely fit in with the type of young adult books that get banned. I know they haven't been reading her adult non-Star Trek/X-men/Spiderman fiction books--they'd definitely want to ban those. (Let's just say one series makes King and King look tame.)
Posted by: cjmr at September 29, 2005 10:32 PM
That is so cool. I didn't know they had a "banned book week" (how did I miss that??? I usually know about all things book-related). Anyway. It's been a while since I looked at the "list". It cracks me up that there are so many Judy Blume and Lois Lowry books on there -- they were two of my favorite authors growing up. And the funny thing is, Mom is the one who encouraged me to start reading their books! :)
Go Mom!
:)
Posted by: katherine at September 30, 2005 8:55 AM
Oh darn! This totally passed me by this year! bad librarian! I should have posted something. oh well.
Posted by: Moni at September 30, 2005 6:15 PM
The main reason I read Harry Potter was because everyone was talking about banning it and I just had to see what all the fuss was about. Funny how they want to ban books they don't like, but their out there books are ok. I just love double standards don't you?
Posted by: Dianne at September 30, 2005 9:34 PM
Me too! My husband wanted to read the "his dark materials" trilogy by Phillip Pullman because Christians were making such a big fuss over it! I mean, he HAD to read it after that :).
Posted by: Moni at October 1, 2005 1:38 PM
Neo-Christian fanatics should always be threated like any critic. If they something is bad, you should at least take a look at it because they are so out of touch with reality, you could miss something great. When I hear about protests and "godly" people warning me something is bad, that almost guarantees that I will watch, read, or buy whatever they are against. I think most Americans are that way, few of us can stomach worthless human trash telling us what we can think and watch. Half the time you get into it and your baffled what they are actually protesting. They usually haven't seen or read anything about the subject, they just "think" they know what it's about.
Posted by: ManDrake at October 2, 2005 7:32 AM