Celebrate Banned Books Week

Alright, so Banned Books Week is coming up - Sept 26th to Oct 3rd. It is a day marked in US where folks note which books have been challenged or brushed aside in the past few years.

There is focus on banned and challenged books of the current year as well, acting as a platform for authors and works which have been shunned or silenced.

It is basically a tremendous effort to ensure freedom of speech and freedom of expression is kept alive.

So, to mark this week I have been looking over the Banned and Challenged Books of the past few years. You can find out more here and here.

I am hoping to read/re-read 3 or 5 from this list - depending on how much time I can free up from my schedule - and write about them in the Banned Books Weeks.

You don't have to be in US to be passionate about this cause. In fact, it's not necessarily about US alone but free speech all over the world.

Would be nice is folks from other parts of world talked about books that have been pushed aside in their countries. Well, if they can and if they don't get in trouble for it. :(

You know, I expected racy or in-your-face type of novels and stories to be on this list.

Far from it.

Some of the books listed on there are just harmless. Well, other than the power to change the way we think, I suppose.

Check out some of the frequently challenged classics:

1984 (Hmm, no surprise there. Let's pause and ponder about the Kindle incident)
The Lord of the Rings (Wait ... what?)
The Maltese Falcon (Can't find why this is on the list)
Winnie-the-Pooh (Are you kidding me?)
The Wind in the Willows (Again with the wtf?)