I know what it sounds like, but no, Better World Books is not actually creating profiles on dating sites looking for Big, Beautiful Women (though we do advertise on a few dating sites… not that I would know… I’m sure I just heard it through a friend…).
Rather, I’m inviting you to join Better World Books in celebrating Banned Books Week!
Banned Books Week is a time to celebrate and practice intellectual freedom by reading books that various groups have banned for all kinds of ridiculous reasons – usually related to sexual explicitness, vulgarity, or religious or political views. Here are a few that might surprise you:
Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Judy Blume’s Blubber
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
There’s tons of information out there on BBW that you can check out at your leisure by simply Googling Banned Books Week or FREADOM or seeing what ALA has to say about it.
Why I am celebrating Banned Books Week?
Because I can.
I can not only because I live in a free country, but also because I have the coveted ability to read. I have the resources available to me. And I know much of the world’s population isn’t so fortunate.
So join me… grab a banned book and let’s celebrate our FREADOM!
Personally, I’m considering picking up a copy of Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (not that I relate or anything… I’m just sure one of my friends would appreciate it…)!
Banned Books Week 2010 is September 25th – October 2nd.
— Mary Olson, Outlet Store Manager
I don’t believe in banning books in general. I feel that books are like movies, and that not all of them should be read before a certain age.
R movies are banned at schools, including high schools, where most of the audience is not mature enough to handle certain issues.
Books are very similar to movies, even though some very graphic descriptions of all kinds of disturbing actions can leave a life-long mark in children, as well as in adults’ minds.
As an example, “Running with scissors” a memoir, is very disturbing for anybody, especially young adults. Why have them read it when there are so many other choices for them? I saw myself that teenagers love that book.
I saw a 14 year old read Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” at school, during Silent, Sustained Reading time. That is sooooo scary!
How can we accurately determine when is the correct age that an individual reaches leaving them ‘mature enough’ to handle ‘certain’ issues? Which issues and what ages? I think that seeing a fourteen year old reading the bible could be just as ‘scary’ as seeing one read ‘mein kampf’. Censorship is a joke.
How wonderful. My book club just decided to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” but we didn’t realize it was on a BB list. I feel kinda racy.
I am educator on the secondary and university area in English. I am proud to say that Fahrenheit 451 FAHRENHEIT 451 and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD are among my high school’s class novel selections. I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS in on the nonfiction recommended-list and BRAVE NEW WORLD is on the college-bound recommended-list. In fact, most of the banned books are read my a greater majority of our students – both secondary and university. I, along with many of my colleagues, feel that allowing life play-out on the pages of a book is much more “educational” that “living through it.” Books teach life — the good, the bad, the things to enjoy, and the things to avoid.
Censorship is advocated by those who fear what they cannot relate to their children and those things that they to understand. In my evaluation, censorship is advocated by the “small of mind.”
I read Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” when I was 15 years old and some people thought I was to young to read that book. Thank the heavens and stars I did, because it has made me a life long advocate for the poor and disenfranchised.