Banned book week was October 1-7. Although I’m a bit late, here are some of the top banned/challenged books of the last decade.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. 1984 by George Orwell
4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
7. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
8. Animal Farm by George Orwell
9. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
10. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
11. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
14. Beloved by Toni Morrison
15. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
16. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
17. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
18. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
19. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
20. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
21. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
22. Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey
23. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green
25. George by Alex Gino
26. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
27. Drama by Raina Telgemeier
28. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

How many of these have you read? I’ve only read 6. I’m obviously under-read in most of the classics. Some of them I don’t enjoy them because, well, I’m shallow like that. Lol! Also, with all the new books available, I usually forget to go back and read the classics, and I won’t read books with unhappy endings. (I’m talking to you, Looking for Alaska!)

Although I’m conservative, and I don’t like smut, I don’t approve of book banning for two reasons.

1. Books provide a marketplace of ideas. You don’t have to approve of every book’s message or worldview, but you can’t dialogue intelligently about a book you’ve never read. In the past, I’ve had conversations go like this.

Them: “Book X is terrible, just terrible. Why, it should be banned!”

Me: “Have you read it?”

Them: “Well, no! Of course not. It’s trash.”

Me: “Then how do you know?”

Them: “Well, I heard from my sister’s husband’s cousin three times removed that it’s just full of garbage.”

Me: Blinks. Waits. Moves on.

Some of the “questionable” books I read were trash, but I could talk intelligently about WHY I wouldn’t recommend the book to others. There were others I loved, and I couldn’t understand why someone would prevent another from enjoying the story (the Harry Potter series is a case in point).

2. Who decides what gets to be banned/removed? Who’s the gatekeeper? What if they don’t hold the same views you do? I have a book in my possession that I read as often as possible. It’s also one of the most banned books of all time—the Bible. The thought of someone taking away my right to read it (or any book) upsets me because it’s an infringement on freedom.

I remember an interesting conversation when I worked as a librarian. I was talking to an acquaintance whose son I went to school with. She was part of a group that wanted to put brown wrappers on all the Cosmo covers and/or put the magazines behind the counter so children wouldn’t see them. They weren’t asking for banning per se, but a “limiting” of material. When I said I didn’t agree with her, she lost it and began yelling at me in the children’s reading area of the library. I’ve never forgotten how ugly she became when I voiced a view different from hers.

Of the banned books I’ve read, I thoroughly enjoyed the Harry Potter series, The Great Gatsby, and To Kill A Mockingbird. Earlier this year, I picked up 1984 at a used book sale, and I plan to read it soon (even though I know the ending. It helps if I can prepare myself. : -)  ) What banned books were your favorite? Which titles do you plan to read or have already read this year?

Let me know in the comments!