So this coming week is Banned Books Week. I find it interesting which books are banned and why. All of the books on my high school senior year book list are banned books. How weird is that?
Books such as:
A Separate Peace- John Knowles
Death of a Salesman- Arthur Miller
Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes
The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hamlet- Shakespeare
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
Merchant of Venice- Shakespeare
Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
I think these are all wonderful books. Some of them have moments that are disturbing, vulgar, overly graphic, sexual, racist, foul language (all of which are reasons that books are banned) but they all have lessons to teach. I think that people should have the freedom to read whatever they like.
When a person has a problem with a book, a good solution is NOT having the book banned, thereby not allowing those who want to read it the ability to do so. A good solution would be, DON’T READ IT!! I don’t why it is so hard for these people to allow others the freedom to read what they like. I am sure that if anyone tried to tell the banning people what to read, they would not appreciate it, so why do it to others?
A professor once told me that Banned Books Week was a marketing scheme devised by libraries to increase circulation on classic books. Apparently the status of “banned” will automatically increase interest thereby driving up the circ numbers. Not sure if she is right but certainly an interesting take.
Sounds like a great marketing plan like Jessica suggests.. when I do see these books I want to read the six I haven’t yet. If you don’t like it don’t read it.. why is that so hard for people to understand.. stop forcing your views upon others, stop the censorship of excellent reading materials that might make a difference in someone’s life.