Happy Banned Books Week!

It's Banned Books Week this week (September 25–October 2, 2010) which means it's time to celebrate freedom of speech by reading your favorite banned books, or picking up something new and controversial. If you need help with ideas, The American Library Association has a list of frequently challenged books on their website. Also, today the Guardian published a list of the top ten most challenged titles.

Some of my favorite challenged and banned books:

The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
A Separate Peace by John Knowles

So, you tell me: what are your favorite banned books?

Fear of public writing

Though I can read pretty much anywhere, I've found that I can't write in public places. I know plenty of people write happily at coffee shops, or on trains, or in the park, but I just can't do it. I think it's some sort of weird paranoia about someone catching a glimpse of my unedited work.

I was thinking about this today, and it got me wondering about other people's writing routines. I tend to write either at a desk using Big Chimp's iMac, or sitting on the bed against the wall with my laptop on my lap. If I'm sitting at the desk, I have to have my legs up on the chair, sitting pretzel-style. I have a writing playlist of instrumental music (songs with lyrics are too distracting and silence is too oppressive) that I put on random to accompany my typing. It includes a few classical compilations, movie soundtracks, and some Explosions in the Sky albums. I can't write if it's noisy and I can hardly ever write if there is someone else in the room, unless they're doing their own thing—quietly—and facing away from me.

So my question is: what are your writing routines/weird quirks? Do you have a special writing space or a certain type of music that you listen to while you write? And does anyone share my strange fear of writing in public?

What fuels your imagination?

I've always been a multiple book reader. I can never read just one at a time, and usually have about four on the go at any time. I think this has to do with my imagination having always been extremely overactive. The way I look at it, your imagination needs fuel to keep it going. People who don't use their imaginations much don't need to read much because their imaginations lead a sedentary lifestyle. But writers and other creative people need to feed their imaginations A LOT—whether with art, music, books, etc.—because these imaginations are like marathon runners; they are super active, they never stop, and they need fuel constantly.

To continue with this analogy, I think that overactive imaginations need healthy foods in order to grow and develop—good nutritious novels or nonfiction books rather than tabloids; nutrient-packed plays rather than soap operas; and fresh, organic music rather than vacuum-packed, prepackaged pop songs.

To this end, I've cut down dramatically on television in the past couple of years. I think that the old saying that the tube rots your mind may have some truth to it; most of what's on can certainly deaden your imagination, and I believe that the barrage of advertisements are especially unhealthy for your brain.

That's not to say that watching the occasional silly show or listening to a throw-away pop song once in a while will do you any damage; just as an infrequent ice cream sundae won't ruin an otherwise healthy diet. After all, we all crave mindless entertainment sometimes, especially after a hard day of school or work. However, just as we are conscious of what we are putting into our bodies, we should be aware of what we are feeding our minds. Especially for creative people, since our minds are the source of our work and the focus of our lives.

So, what about you? What have you been feeding your brain lately?