For The L♥ve of Reading discussion

How about a round of applause for these authors who have been banned for multiple reasons.

1.Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
2.Native Son by Richard Wright.
3.Beloved by Toni Morrison.
4.As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner.
5.One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kessey
6.The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
7.In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
8.Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
9.East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I did enjoy reading Fahrenheit 451, read that in High School in English class. Seen parts of the movie for One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, others I'm not as familiar with.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

i loved these books
what is wrong with people these days?

Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorite books:) Science fiction at it's best.
Can't say I've read the others though I tried reading some of Faulkner work and well it didn't work out.

I'll have to pick that up. It must be pretty good if it made it to the prestigious banned list.

Slaughterhouse Five is one of my all time favorite books! Banned book lists crack me up. Who are they kidding? Banning it just makes it so much more seductive to people like me.

It makes me want to buy all of them up and make a banned book bookcase just to tick off the people who ban them.

i'm proud to say i've read all but one of the banned books! these are some of the best writers and some of the best books. it's always interesting to find out why books get banned.

i read a book all about why steinbeck's grapes of wrath was banned when it was published in the mid-thirties. very intersting. it gave background for steinbeck's research and the resistance he received from various groups.

I'm glad that you read so many :)

I intend to read every single book ever banned someday :D

Who is it that really decide's what books are banned and the reasons for banning them? My view is read the book description and if it sounds like something that would offend you then just don't read it cause not everyone is going to feel the same way and would really love the book!!!!!!

I agree... read the back of the book. If you plan on reading a book it wouldn't kill you to read the back first. However, I'm one of those people who will just pick up a random book and start reading. I like to be surprised or completely disappointed. Although, it would take a lot to offend me. I'm sure no one can offend me because they wrote what they felt.

I'm not sure who really decides. I think it is different everywhere. A board of stuffy old white men has to be somewhere. But schools, parents, communities, and churches have a lot to do with what is banned where. A book could be banned at one school in all of the US just because a group of parents agreed that the kids shouldn't read it. Or the Pope said that it needs to be banned because no one from the a Christan faith background should read the book. It is different. I feel that if movies can be rated R and not sold to kids or CD's can have Explicit Lyrics written on it why can't a book have a warning label for people weary of offending written words? I mean it only makes sense but hey I'm just a person who doesn't take a fictional story as offensive material.

yeah thats would be my point. Like you said for a surprise read thats fine for you cause it takes alot to offend you. People who would easily be offended I think would always read the back first and then they would know of course not to read it if it sound offensive to them.

Sigh, and people who are trying to go back and ban books based on what is presently Politically Correct. . . Please. . .

Here I'm talking about--Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) and his books because they are "racist"--hey, when Samuel wrote them, he wasn't being racist--he was writing WHAT WAS VIEWED AS THE CORRECT ATTITUDE AT THE TIME HE WROTE THE FRIGGING BOOKS. Gah, how do you expect to understand history if you DON'T READ THE BOOKS THAT WERE WRITTEN AND READ THEN??????

There are other authors that have had that happen to them too (Kipling, Stowe, Swift. . .) and frankly, it drives me bonkers. And the fact that very few Americans seem to have ANY memory for things that have happened in their own country. For instance everyone getting so upset about Osama diving planes into the Twin Towers since after all--he'd never done it before, right? (Wrong--he'd tried to bring them down in the 80's with car bombs.) And what about that little things called Pearl Harbour? Sigh, sometimes I wonder how the heck this country ever does anything, since I swear that news and education are aimed at people who can barely read or understand anything more complex than "See Spot Run" type stuff.

Ann, your response is too funny and too sad at the same time. I think the people who can only read "See Spot Run" are the ones who are trying to ban the books now. They lost their brains in 1st grade.

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Sigh, and people who are trying to go back and ban books based on what is presently Politically Correct. . . Please. . ."

Ann, I know how you feel about political correctness - I am so sick of it - this society has become so twisted in their thinking and our government is forgetting about who their boss is and treating us like we don't exist. Not to turn this into a political discussion but I am Independent politically and I plan to exercise my right to vote out/FIRE everyone in the congress and senate.

Back to the books, your right, people seem to judge a book to quick before they realize what time period the book was wrote in and then have the gull to say it is a racist book. I am so tired of hearing the word RACIST.

I don't know what world others are living in but where I live, there is no racism and everything was fine until Obama ran for office. His color doesn't matter to me, no color does but when you use it as an aid/crutch then the person is taking advantage of the situation and bringing back old and haunting memories.

Political correctness is B.S.

Sorry to go off guys - I hate political correctness and the U.S. government - that is funny coming from me since I am a 100% Disabled Army Veteran. I am so angry at our government that I am ready for Texas to secede from the Union.

Just last week here in Austin Texas, the school board is still debateing what to keep in the text books in schools especially history, social science, etc...

I can not believe they want to take out who was the first man on the moon, or the Holicost (sorry for spelling) - Here we go with political correctness again - their reasonings behind taking it out is so stupid.

as a fellow texan (from houston) and teacher, i find it appalling that any district would attempt to ban any book used for educational purposes. but i suppose it is slightly idealistic of me as a liberal democrat living in a republican state.

i think this "modification" of history and selective memory is another symptom of the narrow-minded plague that affects so many persons making decisions for educators that are not educators themselves.

I agree Elizabeth - why anyone feels they have a right to take out a part of history and treat it like it never existed is totally trying to change or push things on our kids to meet their own ideals on their agenda for political reasons is so stupid. They need to leave the politics out of it.

I seen a bit of this debate briefly on the news. I'm not a TV watcher so it wasn't on long. The one part that stuck with me was this white women saying that we agree that we are going to mention two Latino why is it such a big deal which two we pick... or something along those lines. Lady, that is huge! Wow, you are going to be putting a minority history in American history book. We wouldn't be having this debate if they were put in the book in the first place. I also really hate that every single history book you will ever pick up has tons of printed lies about Native American History. Which is fun in itself because each tribe has their own history. History just makes me mad when it comes to schools. Even College.

Elyssa, I know what you mean about history. You are right about every tribe having their own history. Some tribes were more educational than others and some were more civilized than others and some were just plain warriors who only thought of the next kill whether it be the next tribe or the foriegners coming froma cross sea to take over their lands.

I am 1/8 Cherokee and a whole bunch of other stuff - I think I have some german, irish, dutch, etc... in me. Maybe a little Jew in me too, who knows.

But the point is that these educators have been stretching the truth to suit their political correctness and it doesn't take a genus to figure out that they have left out the pieces especially when individuals study abroad and their history doesn't match up with what America has.

They are treating history like the media treats certain events - they only report what they want you to know and not the whole truth.

I get to agervated. LOL Anyway, I just try to keep it as real as I can with everything and I try to expose my kids to different cultures.