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?
Most of the Nag Hammadi texts. You wanna talk about challenged and banned? These things were hidden from fire happy Orthodox Christians for approximately 1500-1800 years!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that Suzy is teaching a banned book. Viva la resistance!
ReplyDeleteBrad: the Nag Hammadi texts are a great example! I've added them to my reading list. Should be interesting, as I am reading the bible currently.
ReplyDeleteJeff: Gotta love that Suzy is starting the revolution. What a great novel, too. I hate the way people try to ban books because they deal with tough issues. It insults kids' intelligence.
The disappointing thing about the Nag Hammadi texts is that so many of them are in such shambles that it is hard to get much out of them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, most of the authors were Gnostics and wrote their texts presupposing that the people reading them had a good understanding of their outlook, underlying moral philosophy and the like. This makes it challenging to follow them sometimes, without extensive knowledge of Jewish customs, early mysticism, dualism, and the like.
Definitely a difficult read, but certainly essential for anyone deeply interested in early Christian texts! Best of luck!
PS: Marvin Meyer does some beautiful translations of the texts. Check them out. Also, Karen Armstrong, Bruce Metzger and Bart Ehrman are all treasure troves of information about Christianity, its followers, and their holy texts.
Thanks for the info, Brad! I have a pretty strong academic interest in religion and always appreciate reading recommendations :)
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