I'm gonna re-read Catcher in the Rye just for fun. My ex teases me about it because he says I'm too shy about using the F-bomb but I love Salinger's book and thinks that's weird. Oh well. I've never claimed to be anything but unpredictable. Besides, telling me that a book is banned is like waving a red flag in front of a bull -- I simply have to read it! And I find some of the entries downright astounding. It takes a really sick mind to find Wuthering Heights or Macbeth worthy of banning -- just my take. If anyone has such a mind, stop reading now and go find another blog to read.
So, do y'all want to join me in reading a banned book? Here's a list of banned and challenged books -- some of which will amaze or amuse you. Wuthering Heights? Puh-lease!!!! Have fun!
- 1984 - George Orwell
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) - Mark Twain
- Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
- Age of Reason - Thomas Paine
- Andersonville (1955) - MacKinlay Kantor
- Animal Farm - George Orwell
- Arabian Nights
- As I Lay Dying (1932) - William Faulkner
- Awakening - Kate Chopin
- Beloved - Toni Morrison
- Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
- Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo A. Anaya
- Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
- Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
- Call of the Wild - Jack London
- Can Such Things Be? - Ambrose Bierce
- Candide - Voltaire
- Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
- Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
- Catcher in the Rye (1951) - J. D. Salinger
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
- Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
- Color Purple - Alice Walker
- Confessions - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
- Decameron - Boccaccio
- Dubliners - James Joyce
- Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
- Fanny Hill - John Cleland
- Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
- Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
- Grapes of Wrath (1939) - John Steinbeck
- Hamlet - William Shakespeare
- Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
- House of Spirits - Isabel Allende
- Howl - Allen Ginsberg
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
- Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
- Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
- King Lear - William Shakespeare
- Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
- Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman
- Lolita (1955) - Vladimir Nabokov
- Lord of the Flies - William Golding
- Lysistrata - Aristophanes
- Macbeth - William Shakespeare
- Madame Bovary
- Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare
- Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe
- Monk - Matthew Lewis
- Native Son - Richard Wright
- Nigger of the Narcissus - Joseph Conrad
- Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
- Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
- Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
- Passage to India
- Portnoy's Complaint (1969) - Philip Roth
- Rights of Man - Thomas Paine
- Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
- Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Separate Peace - John Knowles
- Silas Marner - George Eliot
- Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
- Sons & Lovers - D.H. Lawrence
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
- Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller
- Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare
- Ulysses - James Joyce
- Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
- Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Happy Blogging!!!!!
Kay
I've read only 17 of those. I'm like you, I'll have to read others just to see what the fuss is about.
ReplyDeleteBlack Beauty? A Wrinkle in Time? Oh my goodness! You gotta be kidding me. That's incredible! I loved those books as a kid. Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteI remember I had to read James Joyce's "Portrait of an Artist" (curiously, not on your list) when I was in high school. I hated it. It was difficult to read. I complained to my dad at the time, and a smile crossed his face. "I remember reading that book when I was in high school," he told me, "except I wasn't allowed to read it. I had to hide it from my teachers and my parents because it was banned at school. But ... I loved that book."
ReplyDeleteI think the main reason he liked it was b/c he wasn't supposed to read it. Such is the power of banning a book. Maybe if we banned MORE books, then kids would be inspired to read more. Hmmm, probably not.
Btw, much later I reread "Portrait of an Artist" and liked it better. By then I was 50, and a little more "mature."
Don't think I'm quite ready for "Ulysses" yet (maybe when I'm 100). But I have been meaning to go back and reread "To Kill a Mockingbird." Thanks for inspiring me to do that.
Btw, what a great list of books. Could be the basis for an interesting college course (maybe it already is.)
Some of my favorite books! But here's my excuse to dive into Ambrose Bierce, the originator of snark. I'm on it!
ReplyDeleteWally: Good for you!!!! I was an English/Spanish major and have read about half of them (guessing here). I hope to have read all of them by the time I die.
ReplyDeleteKay: Astounding, isn't it and I must be an awful mom because I ready "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" to the Dynamic Duo!! They loved it.
Sightings: I think "Portrait" is on the list -- I just put the short list here. I doubt I'll ever read "Ulysses" -- I've started it several time. And yeah, it would be a great course and I would love to teach it!!!!
Nance: Same here!!! I keep a copy of The Devil's Dictionary on my desk!! Bierce was the Bill Maher of his day!!!
Amazing to me that books are banned or were banned.I have read a number of the books on the list and some of those i didnt finish because to me they were boring.
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike! This is blog post subject as well.
ReplyDeleteRead and enjoy, but post a youtube video reading it if you can!
http://www.youtube.com/bannedbooksweek
Andersonville!!?? I've read or attempted to read (Ulysses for one) 32 of the books on this list.
ReplyDeleteDoes getting your book banned serve as an indication that you have just written a classic or are classics so well written they can not help but becoming a red flag to people with small minds?
Hmmm, I say both.
I've read many of those books, and have heard of all of them except "Monk". I'll be getting on that soon.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this reading list. I have read some and attempted others. I will bookmark this page and work my way down the list!
ReplyDeleteUnreal--I've read many of those more than once!!! And will re-read them again!
ReplyDeleteJohn
Would you believe that I've read 55 of those books? Do I get a prize?
ReplyDeleteKay -- I guess I am guilty -- cuff me if you can catch me. I have read MANY of the banned books on your list. for some reason I did not understand who put this ridiculous list together. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteLooks like my summer reading list! I have read many of these books, and it's hard to see why some of them would be banned. Of course books have the power to change people's way of thinking...
ReplyDeleteI think I am going to have to read one of those and see what the fuss is all about.
ReplyDeleteWhich one is the shortest?