Banned Books Year.

Originally I planned to read the top 100 banned books in the next year. But with my husband and I moving to a new duty station in 2 months, him possibly getting deployed early next year, which would mean me moving back home with my family while he is gone and probably getting a job and starting back at school while his is gone....there is just too much on my plate to make that kind of commitment. So after we move and get settled in in Colorado I will start trying to read at least one banned book a week. If I cannot keep up with one a week (since I will still be reading all my other books) I will do no less than 2 a month.

I will start reading them January 1st 2011-December 31st 2011. If it ends up being superbly enjoyable and don't want to stop I'll keep doing it after the end date. But for now, I'll just stick to a year. Right now I am reading lists and lists of banned/challenged books and making my own list of which ones to read and why they were banned so when I am done reading them I can blog about it here and tell you what I think.

I am very much against censorship on books. To me, it is a cop out of for parents to be less involved in their kids lives. They shouldn't ban books. They should know what their kids are reading. I would even go as far to say that they should read the books before their kid.

Maybe if some came up with a good reason for wanting to ban a book from a school or library I would think about being okay with it. But when people are removing books like "Anne Frank" from shelves for the reason of it being too depressing...that makes me lose hope in people. Yeah, it is depressing. It took place during the Holocaust! I don't think there is a way you can write about Jews being tortured and killed or hiding for their lives for years and make it sound all happy go-lucky. That was life back then....okay okay, tangent over.

But seriously, this is happening. And it needs to stop. Censorship is not a good thing, especially in this area. So next "Banned Book Year" update I should have a list of what I have decided to read and the reasons why the books were banned or challenged. If packing and moving isn't too overwhelming I might start a month or so early so that I can get some more books in.

I would also love to hear from you. If you decide to do something like this with me, or just read one or two. Tell me what you think. Do you agree with the banning? Did you enjoy the book? Would it have been something you would have picked up to read just to read it? Let me know. This is gonna be fun :)