So I am sort of borrowing this idea from the Bookwyrm Knits blog. I really wanted to do something for Banned Books week, but time kind of slipped away from me, and now we’re nearly at the end of the week. So to introduce this I just wanted to mention two of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in a movie are in the Indiana Jones film where you see the Nazis burning books - as an avid bibliophile this was almost painful to watch - and in the film Equilibrium where they torch the Mona Lisa. (Guess you can tell I’ve never watched a slasher flick, huh?)
I wish I’d read more of the books on the banned books list, I can’t help but wonder why some of them are there. (You can see the lists of frequently challenged books here. I did read a book when I was a teenager that disturbed me - it was about cannibalism and didn’t have a happy ending. But funnily enough that book isn’t on the list.
As I haven’t read 13 books on any of the Banned Books lists, my Thursday 13 will be books I have read, or am going to make a supreme effort to read before Banned Books Week next year.
1. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (Top 100 challenged books 2000-2007) I studied this one at school. And am pleased to say that when quotes from it were used on Lost I recognized them before being told where they’d come from.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (Top 100 challenged books 2000-2007). Another one I studied at school, with the same teacher as Of Mice and Men IIRC.
3. The Pigman by Paul Zindel (Top 100 challenged books 1990-1999) - Yep, another one I studied in that same English class in high school. IIRC this was free reading rather than part of the curriculum.
4. Cujo by Stephen King (Top 100 challenged books 1990-1999) Okay, this one I didn’t read in class. I can’t remember whether I watched the film first or read the book. I think I saw the film. It was during my horror phase in my teens, and I was studying Stephen King as part of my wide reading for A-Level. That was the part of the course where you had to choose an author to study. (I was told at the time to make sure I submitted an essay on something classical as well in case I completely scuppered my course result by choosing to study a horror novelist. So one essay on the short stories of King, and one essay on Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare).
I remember reading about his thoughts on Cujo and why it (the book) had to end the way it did, and why of course the film had to end differently.
5. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (Top 100 challenged books 1990-1999). One of my favourite books from childhood. I’m sure we read this at school as well.
6. The Dead Zone by Stephen King (Top 100 challenged books 1990-1999) Again read during my horror phase, though I didn’t study this one for class. Funnily enough I never read Carrie which is also on the list, maybe because I found high school horrific enough without having to read about it.
So that brings us to the end of books I’m sure I’ve read on the list, :sigh: I definitely feel I should have read more. So below are some of the books I intend to read before Banned Books Week next year.
7. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Top 100 challenged books 2000-2007). Now I’m already halfway there with this one because it’s in my TBR pile.
8. Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. (Top 100 challenged books 2000-2007). This one has been on my wishlist for longer than I care to remember. I’m not 100% clear how it got there but it makes this list.
9. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Top 100 challenged books 2000-2007)
10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Top 100 challenged books 2000-2007) Kind of ironic that this book is on the list given its subject matter, and because of that probably one I should read.
11. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (Top 100 challenged books 2000-2007)
12. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (Top 100 challenged books 2000-2007)
13. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle (Top 100 challenged books 1990-1999)
If you have any recommendations from the challenged lists, I’d love to know.
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