It’s that time of year again, to go and buy/check out/borrow your favorite banned book(s)! I was at my local Half Priced Books and they had this cool sign (seen to the right) reminding us that Banned Books Awareness Week is September 26th through October 3rd. Okay, so maybe “awareness” does sounds kinda weird, but it’s really interesting how many books have been banned! Ones that I would never think of! If you go to deletecensorship.org you can see the top 100 list. They include:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (series) – J.K. Rowling
Forever, Blubber, Deenie, Tiger Eye, Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret – Judy Blume (she is banned a lot!)
Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Goosebumps (series) R.L. Stine
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
A Light in the Attic – Shel Silverstein (I loved this one!)
Carrie – Stephen King
How to Eat Fried Worms – Thomas Rockwell
Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton

Of course, the list is huge, but these are ones that stand out to me. I had not realized how many times Judy Blume has been challenged!



Banned Books Week 2009 is the twenty-eighth annual celebration of the freedom to read. This freedom, not only to choose what we read, but also to select from a full array of possibilities, is firmly rooted in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. – Robert P. Doyle

Here’s another list:
The American Libraries Association’s top ten most challenged books of 2008:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

2. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, violence

3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R series by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

4. Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, violence

5. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, violence

6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group

7. Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality, unsuited to age group

9. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

10. Flashcards of My Life by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Hm, so now I am wondering what I should try reading…? I’ve actually read quite a bit of the older banned books, but only one from this updated 2008 top 10 list. Perhaps “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya? Or, I did keep seeing “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier on several other lists, perhaps I should take a look at that too. Actually, I am reading “Eclipse” by Stephenie Meyer, someone who is no stranger to the censored list. Okay, so the Twilight series isn’t exactly considered of a high literary standard, but screw it! It’s like candy, and while I read “Chimera” by John Barth, I want to enjoy some easy reading too!

Like I said, go out and read something! Could be a fun read, something naughty, silly or something classic…just read!! Oh and the deletecensorship.org site also has a kids section, you can take an interesting little quiz and and test your Censorship IQ!

Ever since I was little I always wanted a wall of books. No, not just a wall…an entire library. You know, like in the movies where the rich family goes into their “study” and takes a book from their “library” and perhaps the library resides in the north wing of the house…you know, those kinds of movies. I loved the idea of having several books, nah, I should say “volumes” to choose from. And these volumes would have thick covers with gold lettering and the page edges would also be trimmed with gold. To sit, next to a crackling fire in your smoking jacket (or in my case ‘non-smoking’ jacket) and enjoy a chapter or two of Dickens or E. B. White. Those visions still fill my head, okay, perhaps not the whole north wing, gold letters and crackling fire…but the idea of my own library.

Well, it’s 14 years after high school and I finally have my small library! I have a wall of books, DVDs, and CDs. Okay, so my husband helped me fill out some of the space with his favorites, but it’s ours! I have books from when I was little all the way up till now. It’s not the full room of volumes I have dreamed of, but it’s a start and honestly, it makes me happy to look at it.
I recently wondered why that vision has stayed in my head for so long. I know growing up we really didn’t have many books around the house. I can’t say anyone in my family is really a “reader” except for me. Books weren’t really a big deal I guess. We could go to the school or public library any time we wanted, but we didn’t.
So why did I want a wall of books? Could it be perhaps:

a. to look/feel like a smarty pants standing in front of it
b. to be literary enough to necessitate a library
c. to say “oh, I have a book on that” and be able to run to my library and “fetch” it
d. all of the above

Hm, I’m going with D. I’m sure our school librarians helped, as well as certain teachers. I do remember in middle school, standing in front of the library book shelves and staring at all the titles lined up. I would totally judge a book by it’s cover and select the cover, or should I say, the spine that looked most interesting. I also remember in high school my friend Mandy and I would try to read classic novels, everything from Hunchback to Dracula. For some reason it was the cool thing to do (for us at least)!

So why all this talk about libraries? Well, today I marched right on over to the Austin Public Library and got myself a library card!

While I love buying books (I preferably go to Half Priced Books to save money and to recycle), I have joined a book club and well, I would be spending a lot on books. Don’t get me wrong, I will still buy books, but now I can be a bit more choosey. Also, with a book club, sometimes the style of the month isn’t really what I am into, and if I don’t like the book, well, hey I can turn it back in!
When I went into the local library (it’s right around the corner from my house) I was instantly transported back to my middle school library. I don’t know why I hadn’t been in there before, I have lived in this neighborhood for 4 years! The card feels good in my wallet, sort of wish I could wear it like a bumper sticker. “Keep Austin Reading!”
I think you should go check out your local library…
Oh and what are you favorite books? Any suggestions so I can start using my library card?!

Dry: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I must admit, I enjoyed “Running with Scissors” much more than this book. “Dry” A Memoir” dealt solely with Augusten’s alcoholism and his trials at becoming sober. It did give me a view into the world of rehab and AA meetings. I found it hard to relate to a lot of it since I barely drink, but his writing is witty and clever and he does a really good job at letting you know the crap that goes through your mind when trying to break a horrible habit.

It was an easy read but I realized that I haven’t really read about the gay lifestyle much in main stream novels. His relationships were of course a side note to his road to sobriety but he weaved it in pretty well.

If you plan to read Augusten Burroughs, I recommend “Running with Scissors” and maybe leaving “Dry” on the shelf.


View all my reviews.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very short and easy read.

I am finding that I am treating books like a fine mint or chocolate. Something to savor and think about, not to chomp through and prove I read something (or to make my “read” list longer).

At times I will read something and then either re-read the paragraph or even the chapter to take it all in. I noticed I did this with the book “Caramelo”, also by Sandra Cisneros. In “The House on Mango Street” I found myself reading chapters over (they are very short, 1 – 2 pages at most) to make sure I savored all the flavor from her writing.

She writes without any quotation marks to show spoken word. It’s almost as if she is remembering what happened and you’re hearing it in her head.

It’s the story of a girl, living in a low-income area and the people who live around her. The whole book is about her observations of the people she sees, but also her own feelings about living there and realizing what it means to live “there”.

Some chapters make you laugh (she can be very clever in her writing) and some chapters can make you tear up (I’m sure my own background fueled some of the tearing up). The observations are all made through the eyes of a girl, so things like abuse, machismo, and heartbreak are very straight forward, simple, almost romatic. Not romantic in the horrible things that happen, but in the way she sees it and tries to make sense of it.