Tuesday Thinger: Have Your Books Been Banned?

Welcome to another week of Tuesday Thingers! We always love to hear from regular participants as well as new people.

This week, in honor of Banned Book Week (Sept. 26th - Oct. 3rd), our Thinger comes from Tina of Tutu's Two Cents.

Library Thing has a library called BannedBooksList that lists. . . you guessed it!. . . banned books. If you haven't taken a look yet, here it is!

When you click on the library and look on the right-hand column in the first blue box, you will see how many books you share with BannedBooksLibrary.

Questions (feel free to answer one question or as many as you want): Do you have any banned books in your Library? If so, how many? Do you remember having any strong reactions or feelings when reading these books? Were any of the books on the list particularly surprising to you? As always, any special requests or suggestions for next week?

My Answer: Currently, I've got three books in common with BannedBooksLibrary. . . sadly, I KNOW I've read more than three banned books. Why do I only have three on there?? Because I've only been using LT since August of 2008, and I only add the books I've read and reviewed to my Library Shelves. So - I guess I'm admitting that I haven't read a banned book over the past year.

Here are the books I've got in common:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

**To see what BannedBooksList had to say, I had to scroll through my different book shelf views until I found one that showed the tags/notes. I think I used View C, but yours may be different. **

I remember loving Huckleberry Finn. I just recently went through a box of old school papers my mother stopped by with, and one was a journal of Huckleberry Finn that I had to create - how fun. :)

Here is what BannedBooksList had to say under tags/comments: *Banned Books, *Censored Books, *Challenged Books, Category: Fiction, Country: USA, Country: USSR, Reason: Moral, Reason: Racism, Source: ALA 10 Most Challenged 2007, Source: ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged 1990-2000, Source: Beacon for Freedom Database, Time Period: 2000sUS - 1885 banned by Concord, MA library as trash 1905 Barred from Brookly Library Childrens Room "Huck not only itches, but scratches and says sweat when he should say perspiration" 1957 dropped from list of approved books for NYC schools partially due to "n word" - Twain censored. 1969 - removed from Miami-Dade Junior College required reading list - "creates an emotional block for black students that inhibits learning" Challenged as racist - 1976 Winnetka, IL 1981: Davenport, Iowa 1982: Houston, Texas and Fairfax County, Virginia 1983: State College, Pennsylvania 1984: Springfield and Waukegan, Illinois 1986: Lincoln, Nebraska USSR - 1930 confiscated at border 1946 had become best sellers in Soviet Union (Info Source - Beacon for Freedom database)

Gone With The Wind has always been a favorite! I've probably read it at least 10 times, mostly in my teens.

Here's what BannedBooksLibrary had to say about Gone With the Wind: Category: Fiction, Country: USA, Reason: Moral, Source: ALA

To Kill a Mockingbird - I had to read it in an English class in High School, and I don't remember much about it, so I'm assuming that it wasn't one of my favorites.

Here's what BannedBooksLibrary had to say about Gone With the Wind: *Challenged Books, Category: Fiction, Country: USA, Reason: Moral, Source: ALA, Source: ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged 1990-2000

I was very surprised to see Gone With The Wind on the list.

Looking forward to reading everyone's answers!!

~ Wendi

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