In a recent “chain letter” that has swept through my Facebook feed, people are given a list of 100 “classic” books and asked to indicate which they’ve read, either in full or bits and pieces. You may or may not be surprised to learn that I’ve read, from cover to cover, 33 of those 100….
On Lending Books
To lend, or not to lend: that is the question. Book lending is a touchy subject amongst avid readers; often our fear or a lost or damaged book is at war with our desire to spread the book love to all our friends and family. The answer to the question, “Do you lend books?” will…
5 (Surprisingly) Banned Books
A lot of the books I’ve been talking about during Banned Books Week are the “big” ones; no one is surprised when I say that authors like Maya Angelou, Ayn Rand, and J.D. Salinger have been removed from classrooms and library shelves. But what about those authors whose works you’d never expect to be particularly…
My Favorite Banned Books
As I mentioned a few days ago, I actually read many challenged or banned books in high school. I can’t decide if this is because I happened to be in a more “liberal” district, or because I was in the AP English program and all we did was read the classics (“classics” often being a…
Celebrating Banned Books Week
Books have been being challenged and banned (and sometimes burned) since the concept of a book became known. The reasons for banning books are numerous and varied, but generally they boil down to the fact that someone, somewhere doesn’t like the ideas contained in the book. A simple search on any search engine will yield…