Community Corner

Libraries, Readers Celebrate Banned Books Week

Librarians want you to read those banned and challenged books.

Did you know that Sept. 22 – 28 has been designated as Banned Books Week?

Libraries across the county are hosting various events and encouraging people to read in celebration of their freedoms. You can visit the Lemon Grove Library at 3001 School Lane. For hours or other information, call (619) 463-9819.

The ACLU published a few interesting facts a couple years back that are still relevant today.

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“Ever since the invention of the printing press in 1456, books have been banned, restricted, removed, censored or challenged for various reasons,” ACLU officials wrote.

“Dante’s The Divine Comedy was burned in 1497 on religious grounds. Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible was burned in 1624 by Papal authority. Queen Elizabeth censored parts of Shakespeare’s ‘Tragedy of King Richard II’ in 1597,” officials wrote. “Today, most books are censored for being ‘sexually explicit,’ for using ‘offensive language,’ or for being ‘unsuited to age group.’”

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Librarians and educators encourage people to read and learn. You can do that at your local library. Below are some facts provided by the ACLU on Banned Books Week.

DID YOU KNOW?

  • Banned Books Week (BBW) was first held in September 1982 and sponsored by the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and the American Library Association (ALA).
  • Many people misinterpreted BBW to be a time to ban books.
  • The most frequently challenged books are usually extremely popular or even classics that enjoy a wide readership. Exactly one third of the titles on the Modern Library list of the 100 best novels of the 20th Century, including six of the top ten, have been removed or threatened with removal from bookstores, libraries and schools at some point.
  • Between 1990 and 1999, the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the ALA tracked 5,718 challenges to materials in schools, school libraries, and public libraries.
  • The list of most challenged books is tabulated from two sources: newspapers and reports submitted by individuals.
  • More than three-fourths of challenges to material occurred in schools, usually involving library material.
  • The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling were the most frequently challenged books recently. Others on the list were Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson.
  • The most frequently challenged authors include Maya Angelou, Judy Blume, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling and John Steinbeck.
Which banned books have you read? Tell us in the comments. Below is a partial list posted by the American Library Association:
  • The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
  • The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
  • The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
  • Ulysses, by James Joyce
  • Beloved, by Toni Morrison
  • The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
  • 1984, by George Orwell
  • Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
  • Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
  • Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
  • Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
  • Animal Farm, by George Orwell
  • The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
  • As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
  • A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
  • Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
  • Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
  • Native Son, by Richard Wright
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
  • Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
  • Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
  • All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
  • The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
  • Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
  • A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
  • The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
  • In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
  • The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
  • Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
  • Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
  • Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
  • A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
  • Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
  • Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
  • Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
  • The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
  • Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
  • An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
  • Rabbit, Run, by John Updike


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