Welcome to Banned Books

The past two weeks have been... a lot. Work has kept me busy and prevented me from doom scrolling as much as I normally would. I am keeping informed of the many, many situations going on around the world right now. However, there's very little I can do to directly impact things as they stand. Spending all my time online reading every new news bulletin that pops up is detrimental to my mental health. 

So, instead, I spend my time reading books.

Some of these books are digital, most are paperbacks won in GoodReads competitions. 

I've spent so much time reading early this year, that I'm (currently) four books ahead of my reading goal for the year. (Let's see if this momentum continues through the rest of 2022). I'm not super picky about genre - I'll even read romance under the right circumstances (sadly I just don't like most romance tropes). Cozy mysteries have long been my go to genre and my family likes to pass them around like candy on Halloween. I'm also fond of poetry, episodic fantasy, and horror. 

I've even made a point to read more non-fiction (usually business or science related) books.

Occasionally, I mix in a "classic" book. Last year I had a lot of fun reading "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles" along with my annual reread of "Alice in Wonderland". Sometimes I agree with the book's status as a classic (like "Treasure Island" or "A Christmas Carol"), other times I wonder why they are considered classics (sorry "Great Gatsby"). 

This year, I think I'll try to include some "banned" books as well.

Why would I want to include "banned" or "challenged" books? Mostly to see for myself what the fuss is about. 

I've actually read quite a few books that have been "banned" - usually at school. In fact one of those books I read in twelfth grade English class has been cycling in the news again because my newly elected state's governor ran on a campaign to ban it.

 "Beloved" was one of those books that I was either not mature enough to understand or the literary prowess went completely over my head. That doesn't mean that I disliked the book or felt uncomfortable by it (no, this book was very uncomfortable for MANY reasons). I mean that I didn't fully get or appreciate it. I maintain that if I had been introduced to "Beloved" as a horror novel, I would have enjoyed the book a lot more (it's still uncomfortable and at times disturbing, but a seventeen/eighteen year old can handle the material just fine).

This call to ban "Beloved" and a few other titles I was familiar with, got me curious as to how many banned books I'd actually read. 

Unfortunately, I haven't found a reliable list of banned books. The lists usually include books that have been banned throughout different years or decades for one reason or another. Sometimes the books are only banned in one state or county, but easily obtained in book stores. 

So I picked the list Business Insider shared from The American Library Association (ALA) which list the top 21 books challenged in 2021. On this list of 21 books, I'd read 4.5 (as long as we count the one series of books listed as "one" book, otherwise its 10.5). 

That half book I read was "A Handmaid's Tale" which I tried reading the summer between Freshmen and Sophomore year for summer homework because it was an iconic feminist work, but was so disturbed by it that I just couldn't finish it. That doesn't mean it should be banned, just that I couldn't finish it. Instead, I ended up reading "The Bluest Eye" which is also on the list for 2021. It's also disturbing in some places.

However, the fact that a book is disturbing shouldn't mean that it ends up on a banned list. Sometimes we need to read disturbing material to learn empathy, understand history, and change the future. I didn't like "A Handmaid's Tale", but I did like "The Bluest Eye". I (for the life of me) didn't understand "Beloved" at age seventeen. Maybe if I read it over a decade later, I finally will. 

In recent years, a lot of banned or challenged books have focused on issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation. This seems to reflect what's going on politically in certain states whom I'm most disappointed in. The books I'm not seeing on these lists are the ones that actually advocate for harming others (none of those books will be listed in this blog post).

If you're wondering whether or not I believe in banning books, you've come to the wrong blog post. Yes, there are some books that I find hateful and would not recommend reading. There are also books that are just poorly written and probably shouldn't have gotten passed the editor.

It's not my place to say whether or not these books should be banned.

Because I sometimes find that once you "ban" something or restrict access to it, people (particularly kids who love defying authority figures) will find some way to get their hands on it any way. I'm definitely more interested in "Captain Underpants" now that I know it's been challenged so many times than when it first saw copies of it.

How many "banned" books have you guys read? Any on the 2021 list? Are you interested in reading any of these "banned" books? I know there are other lists out there that have different books on them (and some of those books I've also read), so don't feel limited by the list I've used for this post. 

I think I'm most interested in reading "George" by Alex Gino, "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas (it's been on my to read list for a while), and "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo" by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller which was commissioned by Jon Oliver.

If you enjoyed this blog post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.