a useful list of must-reads

[realthog]

Thanks to t'Grauniad for adding to my mental list of books to be added to the to-be-read pile with a story headed

Kite Runner joins gay penguins on top 10 books Americans want banned

Yes, folks, the American Library Association has just released its annual list of the books most complained about by those who would wish morality to be defined according to their own hatred-derived constrictions -- the group who think it's okay to drop bombs and napalm on kids but not to expose them to alternative lifestyles.

Hm. Wonder what Amazon's going to make of all this . . .

The full article is well worth reading. Here's its summary of the Top Ten in the Hall of Pride:

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

Comments

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

Hee. We have at least 50% of these on our shelves.

Also: why would Amazon listen to anyone who's not paying them? Does t'Grauniad pay them? Then they shoudln't expect to have their list tidied away on Amazon.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Um, the Grauniad's as derisive as you or me about the would-be banners.

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

See, this is what I get for making assumptions and not reading the article at the link. :-)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I'll let you off this time, but don't let it happen again, d'ye hear?

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

Och, did ye bust out the Scots burrrrrr just for me?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Aye, lassie, I ken the effect it has on the ladies.

[quilterbear.livejournal.com]

ROFL!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Odd. That's what all the other ladies do as well . . .

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

We American girls ken Scots better than you ken. ;P

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"We American girls ken Scots better than you ken."

Aye, that's the rumour.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I find that going full Oxonian has a similar effect. Neither South London nor St Elizabeth, Jca, does it.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Neither South London"

That's "Souf", surely!

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Souf the rivver.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Bless, me, but Bless Me, Ultima made the list this year!

Evidently 'religious viewpoint' means Catholic. Wonder who got on that wingnut and shoved into the tightyrightywhiteys everywhere? Gee, let me guess, the same ones whose young babble all glaze-eyed about going to Haiti and converting the Haitians to Christianity.

Love, C.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Tango Makes Three has become a perenniel on the list, as is His Dark Materials.

Love, C.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

My ex's sister gave my elder son the first volume, I gave him the other two.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I think it's not just Catholics who're the problem but Fundies in general. I have a book somewhere on the ALA's earlier struggles with this sort of crap, and all the various Christian and non-Christian sects seemed implicated -- as were, to be fair, others.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Born agains and rapturists etc. don't consider Catholics to be Christians, is what I'm saying. Bless Me, Ultima is set in the old Mexican culture of New Mexica, with their regional syncretization in many areas of local Indio practices with Catholicism, particularly in terms of healing body and soul, via the curandas and other folk practices that have developed since the 16th century.

But it is CATHOLIC, just as Haiti is CATHOLIC, and born agains don't consider CATHOLIC to be christian.

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Ah -- ta for the clarification. I don't know the book so misunderstood your earlier comment.

"born agains don't consider CATHOLIC to be christian"

Born agains don't consider the teachings of Christ to be christian . . .

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

A colleague at another institution, who is Catholic, told me once he was angered when a student in one class made a distinction between Catholics and Christians. She seemed to find it odd when he pointed out that Catholics were Christians. I've had a similar experience, when I've corrected students who've said 'Catholics and Christians'.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

*snort*

[alaneer.livejournal.com]

Sheesh, that's awful.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Sheesh, that's awful."

Yes, but as a couple of the authors involved point out in the article, the publicity involved actually increases their sales/readership.

What's sad, of course, is that there are so many people who have the magical-thinking belief that you can change reality by barring others from reading about it. And it's sad for their kids, too, who have to suffer the effects.

[alaneer.livejournal.com]

". . . increases their sales/readership."

Karma, these things have a way of backfiring.

[quilterbear.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly speechless. THE KITE RUNNER??? I mean, yeah, there's one scene that is horrible, but that's the POINT.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

These people don't actually read books the way you or I read them, and they have no ability to distinguish a piece of exploitative crap from something perhaps significant.

What's odd is their obsession with imposing their own limitations on others.

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

I disavow book burners. I disavow any association with them. If I find out anyone I know, anywhere, is a book burner and supports book banning and censorship of freedom of speech and writing I will ban them from my personal space.

This is when being an American is embarrassing. Shameful.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many other countries have it just as bad, and some have it worse: try reading The Satanic Verses in Tehran . . .

But I know what you mean. These book-banners probably regard themselves as upstanding US patriots, when in fact what they're doing is undermining international respect for the US.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Suicide can be very painful, I hear.

[deliabarry.livejournal.com]

It really is the same old, same old in terms of reasons, isn't it? ::yawn:: These people are so boring.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Yep. It's the kind of grim-eyed, resolute, brainless refusal to take even one peek outside the walls of their own dark fortress, isn't it?

Makes me despair, to be honest.