Celebrate Banned Book Week. Read a Banned Book!

‘We all know that books burn, yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever.’ Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a message to the booksellers of America, May, 1942.

We all like to get away with stuff. We do, really. C’mon, admit it, you smiled with glee that time you and your buddies flushed that cherry bomb down the toilet in the boys’ bathroom back in high school, didn’t you? (and you didn’t get caught.) And you thought you were hot stuff, when you hid those copies of Playboy in that box in your closet, right? By the way, dad knew they were there, he just didn’t tell you that he knew. (But it’s a damn good thing mom didn’t find them. Hoo Boy!) And of course, what red-blooded American doesn’t doesn’t smile, just a little, when they zoom past a state trooper at seventy miles per hour, right when he’s got somebody else pulled over? It’s kind of a ‘goody-goody-good’ feeling, am I right? And if you’re a smoker, then you must admit that one of the primary reasons you smoke is because nobody tells YOU what to do, right? And if they try to, you’ll show them, right? ‘You got that right pal’.

If you think all that’s fun, then it’s time to do something even more fun, something that will really make you feel rebellious, and help you stand up to those rotten do-gooders, who are always out to suck the fun out of everything, and always trying to tell YOU what to do. You can read a banned book. Yep, it’s just that simple. The week of September 23rd, to September 30th is ‘Banned Book Week’, as proclaimed by the American Library association.

It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Here, in the year 2006, in the United States of America, we actually have banned books. (And in some cases, book burnings.) You might be thinking, ‘Well, it’s okay. I mean, most of these are banned by school districts, and they are looking out for what’s best for the children’. I’ll agree that ‘The Catcher In the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger is probably improper for grade school kids. They would take one look at all those pages, with lots of words and no pictures, and be turned off. They should stick with Doctor Seuss, with all the big type faces, goofy rhymes, and cartoonish pictures of truly bizarre gadgets. But high schoolers? Please. What high school age kid worth his/her salt doesn’t know the “F word”, or the “A word”?

It’s interesting to note that ‘vulgar language’ is a frequent reason given for banning or challenging a book in school districts. Hello mom, dad, and school officials. I’ve got some news for you: have you heard the way kids talk in the school yards, locker rooms, or anyplace else where no authority figures are present? Hate to break it to you, but the kids know all the usual dirty words, and some you probably have not heard at all. That’s just a fact, like it or not.

Here’s a link to the American Library Association.

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/reasonsbanned.htm

It’s a list of some of the banned / challenged books, and the various reasons for the banning and the challenges. Check out some other features of the website. And take a look at this good piece by journalist Michael Miller. (Harry Potter Meets the Wizard of Dumb)

http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2001/04/23/editorial2.html

Now, I have never read a Harry Potter book, nor do I have any interest in reading one. If you don’t like them, and don’t want your kiddies reading them, that is your choice. But don’t tell me I can’t read a Harry Potter book. Do that, and I’ll hit Barnes and Noble tomorrow, and buy a bunch of them. Then I’ll give them to people that want them, but can’t afford them. What do you think of that?

Celebrate Banned Book Week by reading a banned book. There’s bound to be something on the list you’ll enjoy. Check that list over carefully, you might be surprised at some of the books that are on it. The list of banned and challenged books includes some books that are considered literary classics.

Heck, be a subversive! Have a problem with authority figures? Want to show people that nobody tells YOU what to do? Read A banned book! Kids, take that money you were going to blow on a fake ID, and score yourself a copy of ‘1984’, ‘Lord Of The Flies’, or ‘Brave New World’. And always remember, there is no such thing as a ‘permanent record’.

Happy Reading!