The Banned Books Reading Months

The Banned Books Reading Months

It’s finally time to begin my biggest project on this blog to date: The Banned Books Reading Months. To kick off this event, I want to go over a couple of things that will improve our discussion later on. I’m going to define some terms, symbols, and sources here, and you’ll get a list of the order in which my selection of books will be read and/or discussed. I’ll explain why I’ve picked these books and why I’m leaving numerous classics alone. I have charts, endless streams of information, and concepts to discuss. Be seated and I hope you will engage in conversation in the comment section for the upcoming weeks.

What are banned books?

Let’s start with some dry material: the definition of banning and/or challenging books. A banning (almost) always starts with a challenge.

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. – American Library Association

Who challenges these books?

As you can see, parents are by far the most frequent initiators, which is pretty obvious. Banned books have absolutely everything to do with children and teenager, because it are often young people that are ‘shielded’ from these books. Essentially, the cause of censorship by parents is often a combination of 1. Love and 2. Fear. Take the banning of Harry Potter for example. A Christian parent fears their child may stop believing in God after reading J.K. Rowling’s books. This is a completely irrational but understandable Fear. The parents Love their child and want it to preserve its faith out of the sincere believe that this is important. Because of this, I don’t want to just rage on the parents and officials who have forbidden the books in question. I want to advice and discuss and try my hardest to understand what banners found offensive and why.

What are these books banned for?

Every book we discuss gets a header that tells you:

- the title

- the author 

- publication year

- the reasons for banning the book

- the last time it appeared in the top 10 from the American Library Association within the 21th century.

For the reasons, I use simple black-and-white symbols. Many come from a Dutch program that uses symbols to show parents what subjects come up in a movie/tv show, so they can make sure no eight-year-old has to suffer through a very explicit love scene. Some of the symbols I made myself.

Offensive language: a challenger found the book contained (too many) curse words.

Drug use, but also alcohol and smoking in my case.

Sex, sex education and/or nudity.

Unsuited for age group: the challenger found the book’s target group was inappropriate in relation to the content of the book.

Discrimination/racism.

Violence.

Religious viewpoint: the challenger did not agree/felt offended by the things the book says/inclines about religion.

Anti-family: I’ve researched this concept into oblivion and I still can’t really explain what it means except for that it’s often used in reference to a.) oral sex or b.) gay marriage.

Occult/satanic.

Political viewpoint: the challenger disagreed/felt offended by the way the book handled politics. It’s got to do with the communism vs. capitalism discussion, but not necessarily.

Homosexuality: yes, shaming on this is still a thing. No, I do not support it.

Sexism: this is going to be an interesting one.

Suicide.

Gambling.

I hope the symbols are obvious enough for in the headers and they will be discussed and named regardless in the body text.

Here’s the statistics for reasons, also from the American Library Association: 

Here’s the bright side: we definitely make progress on departments like homosexuality and occultism. What I find worrisome is for example the increase on political censorship. It limits our ability to openly discuss the world we live in during times in which it’s vital that we talk about our situation.
Side note: yes, that are more reasons than I have listed, but I aim to talk through only the most broad, relevant, and/or interesting topics.

A disclaimer in advance.

1. Banned books almost always contain themes that even our modern society struggles to talk about. The fact that I will read and discuss these books implies that I will spend the following months debating: homosexuality and homophobia, underage drinking and smoking, drugs, sexuality, religion, discrimination, sexism, and many other subjects that we will all have different opinions on. I will strive to respect your opinions and ask the same from you. Speaking and discussing hard things is good, fighting and yelling is not. Use your comment section responsibly.

2. If I call anyone stupid, bad, or any other insult in the following posts (which I will avoid), I apologize in advance if this made you feel offended or sad.

What are we going to read?

These are the books that made my selection:

Reading & Discussion:

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini

4. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

6. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

7. Looking For Alaska by John Green (reread)

8. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

9. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (I’ll read the Dutch version)

10. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

11. 1984 by George Orwell

12. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

13. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

14. Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks

15. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

16. 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Discussion Only:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

3. The Giver by Lois Lowry

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Other Posts:

• The Parent’s Guide to Banned Books

• Analyzing My School Library

Why is my favorite not on your list?

Some frequently banned books like Lolita, The Handmaid's Tale, and Bless Me Ultima have not reached my To Read List. I have various reasons for not reading books (yet), which include: lack of time, my young age, and my religious viewpoint. This does not mean that I am not challenging myself as a reader with this project. It also does BY NO MEANS incline that I support or encourage the challenging/banning of these books.

Here are three exemplary cases:

1. The Handmaid’s Tale: For those who know The Handmaid’s Tale, you might have a clue why I do not feel like putting it on the list. Firstly, there’s a very sexual ritual in the book (I did my research) and there’s much focus on religion. I want to keep this reading project as open as I can, so that ritual is a bit tricky and even though I love talking about religion, the part of the matter discussed in The Handmaid’s Tale is very complex and I am very young and poorly informed.

2. Beloved: I’d love to read this book at some point, but it simply didn’t fit within the time range.

3. Lolita: Ouch. This is purely personal, but an older man having a sexual relationship with a teenager goes too far for me at my current age. I’m sorry.

When can we expect the discussions posted?

Dates are in the order: day-month-year.

1-9-2016-----------The Hunger Games

5-9-2016-----------The Perks of Being a Wallflower

8-9-2016-----------Harry Potter

10-9-2016---------The Catcher in the Rye

15-9-2016---------The Kite Runner

19-9-2016---------The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

24-9-2016---------The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

28-9-2016---------Lord of the Flies

2-10-2016---------Looking For Alaska

5-10-2016---------Fahrenheit 451

8-10-2016---------The Giver

11-10-2016--------The Diary of a Young Girl

14-10-2016--------The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

17-10-2016--------1984

21-10-2016--------My Sister’s Keeper

23-10-2016--------The Parent’s Guide to Banned Books

24-10-2016--------To Kill A Mockingbird

26-10-2016--------Eleanor & Park

29-10-2016--------Go Ask Alice

31-10-2016--------Brave New World

2-11-2016----------Analyzing My School Library

5-11-2016----------13 Reasons Why

I want to read along.

Awesome. Here are my (attempted) reading dates:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower_______________September 1 to September 3

The Catcher in the Rye_______________________September 4 to September 7

The Kite Runner____________________________September 8 to September 13

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian__September 14 to September 17

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn____________September 18 to September 22

Lord of the Flies___________________________September 23 to September 25

Looking For Alaska________________________September 26 to September 29

Fahrenheit 451_____________________________September 30 to October 2

The Diary of a Young Girl____________________October 3 to October 9

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time_October 10 to October 12

1984_____________________________________October 13 to October 16

My Sister’s Keeper__________________________October 17 to October 20

Eleanor & Park_____________________________October 21 to October 23

Go Ask Alice______________________________October 24 to October 26

Brave New World___________________________October 27 to October 30

13 Reasons Why____________________________October 31 to November 4

I am fully aware that these dates are borderline insane and that, in retrospect, it would’ve been smarter to read one or two banned books each month in 2016. Sadly, it is now too late for that.

The discussions won’t be live, just blog posts as I normally do. They won’t disappear. They are only partly spoiler free, so I’d advise you to read the book first and then return for the spoiler section. 

Most of the books on the list are well-known and probably available in sizeable libraries across the globe (unless they’re banned). Since banned books are often connected to school and public libraries, I’ll be getting as many as possible from there. This can cause some disruptions in the schedule due to planning and other people currently having the books. My local library does a lot of shipping with other ones in the region. This is awesome, but it can be difficult to estimate when exactly the book will arrive. If this forces me to shove around dates, I will.

What else can I expect?

Polls, if I can get them to cooperate.

Also, interesting/beautiful/fun stuff like this slam poem that concern the subjects we talk about.