Banned Books discussion

Use this discussion to suggest ideas for future Banned Books Book Club books of the month.

What about The Absoltely True Story of a Part Time Indian?

Adding it to the list, thanks!

That book was wonderful!

Did the group actually read all of the books on the bookshelf? In some other groups it's unclear if some of the members' suggestion or their personal read books have been included, as opposed to the monthly discussion books read together. I just want to make sure I know know what's expected and don't offer repeats.

Oh, and would it be ok to edit those group books by adding to "Why This Book" something short about why it was banned? I'm starting to look up some familiar books and would like to pass the knowledge on, and that looks like a logical way.

The book club part is brand new so none of the books on the list have been read yet and are therefore fair game. I think people would very much appreciate more information about why books were banned so go right ahead. I'm going to start a new book list that are the suggestions for us to read together. I think the other list is books people just added because they have been challenged or banned.

I am really intrigued by the controversy surrounding American Psycho so I'm going to add it to the list.

http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0...

I think it's important for us to note that many books are banned or challenged for reasons that aren't necessarily abhorrent to us. In fact, we may actually agree with the instigators' concerns, although hopefully we would not advocate banning. A friend loved the book and described it as a cultural satire of all things.

American Psycho is banned, too? Sheesh!

(sorry for being slighty--correction: REALLY--outdated)

How about Baby Be-Bop as a YA book. It is about a gay boy coming to terms with being gay and try to find a way to tell his grandmother.

Excellent. I've added it.

FYI, I have decided *not* to add William's book Fe Fi FOE Comes to our poll. When he mentioned it, I didn't realize it was his own book. I don't think it appropriate that people nominate their own books. (To be fair, he just mentioned it and didn't nominate it. I asked him if he wanted to nominate it and he said, "sure.") I also can't find any record of it being banned or challenged anywhere except from the author or the publisher. I can't even verify who this publisher is as this appears to be the only book they published. If someone wants to nominate it and knows it has actually been banned or challenged somewhere, we can add it back in. (I don't need proof, your word is good enough.)

I think it's important we have guidelines for our book group and requiring that the book is known to be banned or challenged by someone other than the author, and that it is nominated by someone other than the author, is legitimate.

I wanted to make this decision public so people don't think it was because he and I have disagreed in this group. I would never remove a book from our list because I disagree with it. What a hypocrite that would make me!

If you disagree with this decision, please do speak up.

Kelly wrote: "FYI, I have decided *not* to add William's book Fe Fi FOE Comes to our poll. When he mentioned it, I didn't realize it was his own book. I don't think it appropriate that people nomi..."

Only about a thousand people have read Fe Fi FOE Comes It is not popular enough to be banned by title. It is the material in the book which is banned by various states. The Department of State is very clear about which countries you cannot import anti-govt or anti-religious material. The material is in this vein.

Remember Melbourne writer Harry Nicolaides, 41, was sentenced to three years imprisonment for defaming the Royal Family of Thailand. He had pled guilty to the lèse majesté indictment that arose from a self-published 2005 novel, Verisimilitude, of which only 50 copies were printed, and just seven sold.

Besides you'll note from the information quoted from the book it mostly just makes the average person angry that their system is criticized.

That in no way sums up the story, but within Kelly's guidelines I would say Fe Fi FOE Comes is not what would go well in a discussion here. So let us not vote on reading that book.

I think that's fair ... I think Kelly's fair.

Thank you, William, for being understanding. I definitely kept it on the open reading list, though, and anyone, including you, is welcome to start a discussion about it in one of the other categories.

It makes me mad that people aren't allowed to criticize their governments. I may not agree with you on much, and I may argue with you on points I don't agree with, but I would defend to the death your right to say it. No system is perfect and without self-examination it will never improve.

Kelly wrote: "Thank you, William, for being understanding. I definitely kept it on the open reading list, though, and anyone, including you, is welcome to start a discussion about it in one of the other categori..."

Thanks Kelly.

The curious thing about Fe Fi FOE Comes is it doesn't just complain about the system ... it fixes it.

A review:

Amazon *****
Excellent near future Sci Fi Book, March 7, 2009
By Lord Lancaster (Lancashire) -
I really enjoyed this book. I am really into the Runic Nordic mythology type stuff and mingled with Sci Fi makes for an excellent read. I would love to see this sort of book actually come true.

Many similar reviews.
biLL

Everyone, we need more suggestions!

Thanks, Laura, that is very helpful.

If you check our bookshelves, you'll see we actually have divided it up. There is a general shelf that anyone can add books to. That's the one that comes up when you first click on "bookshelf." There is no checking to see that they have actually been banned or challenged.

On the left is a list of our smaller shelves. There's a shelf called "suggested for book group" which is the list I pull from for our monthly book. I keep it separate because someone may suggest a book in the main list that they think others should read but they've already read it and no one else has any interest in.

Feel free to suggest any book from the large list to be added to the small list. I look it up and if I can find any kind of reference to it being formally challenged or banned, I add it to the list.

There is also a tiny list called "read in book club" which is a list of the books we've already read and discussed here. (We've only had the book group component for a very short time.)

I'm also creating new shelves for adult and children's so that folks know where it would show up in our polls. Feel free to suggest any book be moved from one to the other.

Does that meet your needs? If not, let me know how I can reorganize to suit.

Thanks!

The new polls are up. I've put an explanation of how I select the books in the discussion "General Book Club Business" so take a look. We really need more suggestions for adult books so recommend away!

Hi, Laura,

Those are great suggestions. Thanks for all your research! Do you want me to add all of them to the list? Some books that are banned may not be that interesting to read. For example, I have no desire to read the Internet Girls or Gossip Girls series. I don't think they have a whole lot of redeeming value.

It's also a daunting task to go through each one and see if it's a children's book or adult book. You've listed a lot here! So this month I'm going to just use our existing list of books specifically recommended for the book club and fill up any gaps with ones from our regular bookshelves that are already sorted by age. (With a random number generator.) But please, do tell me which ones you want me to add to the list we vote on. If you want them all, I can do it. Really I can. :)

I'm not sure how two copies of Cuckoo's nest got up there. I removed one. Thanks for pointing that out!

Hi, all,

Participation in the book club has dwindled from little to just about none. I have been too sick to post new polls but no one read the previous books it appears. (I am now well enough to run it again.) I want to know if people still want to do the book club. If not, no big deal. I don't want to force anyone. Please vote here:

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/invite/...

(and make a comment if you have one) for your reason.

Thanks so much,

Kelly

This is the coolest discussion I've ever come across in Goodreads! Thank you so much to all those who contributed the lists. Keep it up!

middlesex?

Kelly, I didn't know about this group until I saw your comment on my friends list. Since I decided to join, my answer to the poll would be a definite "yes". Right now I'm busy moving into a house I just bought (Yay for me!) and so won't be as active in this group as I'd like for a while. But after things have settled down, I look forward to spending the winter months reading (and also looking at seed catalogs for my new garden - finally!)

~Geri~

Great idea, Signteach. Good for you, Geri! I'm glad you'll be joining us later.

The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire *Love poems originally banned in 1857 France*

My House by Nikki Giovanni?

What type of banned books do we want? I'm a fairly new memberand I'm not sure what we're looking for.

Hi Julie,

We want any book you are interested in reading that has been challenged or banned somewhere. If you suggest it, we'll put it in our poll, then we all vote. If no one wants to read it then no one will vote on it. I personally like books that foster discussion but really, anything goes. Suggest away!

A Junie B. Jones book was challenged? Really? I cannot think of why, but it most have been since it was on the posted list above.

Pandora Kat wrote: "What about The Absoltely True Story of a Part Time Indian? "

Pandora Kat wrote: "What about The Absoltely True Story of a Part Time Indian? "

I loved that book!

Stacy, people are talking about it in another topic, we'd love your opinion!

My friend hates Junie B Jones and won't let her daughter read it because the parents let their child behave inappropriately and don't discipline her. That may be why. May not.

Don't know if everyone has already read it, but A Day No Pigs Would Die is a great book, and a quick read.

Barry wrote: "Don't know if everyone has already read it, but A Day No Pigs Would Die is a great book, and a quick read."

Good too but I think you've read it. So have I.

In honor of Banned Books week, Courting the Classics program manager, Charmaine, reviews Farenheit 451. Share your thoughts on censorship and enter to win an autographed first edition copy of A Pleasure to Burn by Ray Radbury.

How wonderful!

Eek! I wanted to nominate Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo... and somehow I was able to add it to the "to-read" bookshelf? Hope that's ok? If not, please remove (tho its got to OWN at being banned...).

I picked two off of the "to read" shelf:

"Cat's Cradle" Vonnegut, Kurt
"Tiger Eyes" Blume, Judy

Heidi: perfect.

Carrie: We're now putting all books on our to-read shelf into the lottery to discuss so if they're on there already, we're good. If you don't see a book you think should be on there, please add it, or tell me here. Thank you!

Julie and Karen, if you are interested, we had a big discussion about the Junie B. Jones books in http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2.... Look for it on the second page of the topic.

So, we're coming to the end of the current reading period for "The Color Purple." What's next?

Thank you, Sheldon, for reminding me. I've been really busy and lazy lately. I'll have a poll up tomorrow.

Thanks again!

Just found this group. Banned books are often my Favorites. In any case, they provide good reading lists and I taught my son to read banned books, too. (Not bad for a fundamentalist -- not Fundamentalist). I look forward to seeing what book you choose next. If I have it or can get it, I will try to join the discussion. Meanwhile, I will see what I have that's on the bookshelf here.

Welcome, Faith!

I'm curious to see what our next read will be. I'm in the mood for some good book discussion but was not able to participate in the last discussion of The Color Purple (which I saw is now a musical).

I'm not sure if you have already done Lolita. If not, I think it is my favourite banned book of all time.... I began rereading it over the Christmas holidays looking for a little illicit literary inspiration

Ex Lit Prof
www.the-reading-list.com

Oops, posted the polls last night but forgot to send a mail out. Sorry! Will do in a moment.

Yes, we've read Lolita. You can find the discussions at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_.... Feel free to continue the conversation! You can find out which books we've read by looking at our "read" bookshelf. Occasionally someone will accidentally file a book new to our shelves there but I usually catch it pretty quickly.

The book Reading Lolita in Tehran is a wonderful book to follow Lolita. It brings up many other possibilities for what to read as well.

So what are we reading next? It's April!

Thank you Jennifer, you're the only one who's even noticed!

Hi everyone! What are we reading for May?

I may have missed these in those lists, but some come to mind:

Cider House Rules (can't believe it but i didnt see this on any lists. Banned because of all the abortion stuff (political) and incest (sexual) grounds.)

His Dark Materials Trilogy (one of the best books i've ever read, or series of books, i guess)

Tess of the D'Urbervilles was banned at the time b/c of sexual material.