Well, it's banned books week. In honor of that, I made a list of 100 books that I've read that have been banned, censored, or challenged. There are a few (notably The Awakening, Grendel, and One Hundred Years of Solitude) that I thoroughly disliked; however, I am against banning them. Oddly, most of the classics listed were not required reading for school, but things I picked up because of their reputation as "Great Books" (Catcher in the Rye, Madame Bovary, Catch 22, and We, for example.)
As usual, I've got a quote that sums up my view quite nicely:
"I would just say to you as students who are supposed to be learning, that as soon as the book is gone from the library, do not walk -- run to your nearest public library or bookseller and find out what your elders don't want you to know, because that's what you need to know!
Don't let them bullshit you and don't let them guide your mind, because once it starts, it never stops. Some of our most famous leaders have been book-banners, like Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin."
Stephen King, from the speech "Banned Books and Other Concerns: the Virginia Beach Lecture" 9-22-86, as published in Secret Windows
(For those who haven't met me, I adore quotes. At times, I'm quite like Mrs. Who from A Wrinkle in Time that way...)
And, without further ado, my list:
| A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) | Beauty's Punishment |
| A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) | Beauty's Release |
| A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) | The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty |
| Aldous Huxley | Brave New World |
| Alex Comfort | The Joy of Sex |
| Alice Seybold | Lucky: A Memoir |
| Allen Ginsberg | Howl |
| Anna Sewell | Black Beauty |
| Anne Frank | Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl |
| Anonymous | Go Ask Alice |
| Arthur Miller | The Crucible |
| Bill Watterson | Calvin & Hobbes |
| C.S. Lewis | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe |
| Chuck Palahniuk | Fight Club |
| D.H. Lawrence | Lady Chatterly's Lover |
| Daniel Keyes | Flowers for Algernon |
| Dr. Suess | The Lorax |
| E.B. White | Charlotte's Web |
| Elizabeth George Spears | The Witch of Blackbird Pond |
| Gabriel Garcia Marquez | One Hundred Years of Solitude |
| George Eliot | Silas Marner |
| George Orwell | 1984 |
| George Orwell | Animal Farm |
| Grace Metalious | Peyton Place |
| Gustav Flaubert | Madame Bovary |
| Harper Lee | To Kill a Mockingbird |
| Henrik Ibsen | A Doll's House |
| Homer | The Odyssey |
| Hugh Lofting | The Story of Doctor Dolittle |
| J.D. Salinger | Catcher in the Rye |
| J.D. Salinger | Franny and Zooey |
| J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
| J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
| J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
| J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
| J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
| J.M. Barrie | Peter Pan |
| Jack London | Call of the Wild |
| Jacob and Wilhelm K. Grimm | The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm |
| Jean Auel | Clan of the Cave Bear |
| John C. Gardner | Grendel |
| John Cleland | Fanny Hill |
| Joseph Conrad | Heart of Darkness |
| Joseph Heller | Catch 22 |
| Judy Blume | Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret |
| Judy Blume | Blubber |
| Judy Blume | Deenie |
| Judy Blume | Then Again, Maybe I Won't |
| Kate Chopin | The Awakening |
| Kathleen Winsor | Forever Amber |
| Kurt Vonnegut Jr. | Cat's Cradle |
| Kurt Vonnegut Jr. | Welcome to the Monkey House |
| L. Frank Baum | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz |
| Laura Ingalls Wilder | Little House in the Big Woods |
| Laura Ingalls Wilder | Little House on the Prairie |
| Lewis Carroll | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland |
| Lois Duncan | Daughters of Eve |
| Lois Duncan | Killing Mr. Griffin |
| Lorraine Hansberry | A Raisin in the Sun |
| Madeleine L'Engle | A Wrinkle in Time |
| Mark Twain | Huckleberry Finn |
| Mark Twain | Tom Sawyer |
| Mary O'Hara | My Friend Flicka |
| Mary Rodgers | Freaky Friday |
| Mary Shelley | Frankenstein |
| Maya Angelou | I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings |
| Nathaniel Hawthorne | The Scarlet Letter |
| Ray Bradbury | Fahrenheit 451 |
| Roald Dahl | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory |
| Roald Dahl | James & the Giant Peach |
| Robert A. Heinlein | Stranger in a Strange Land |
| Robert Cormier | I Am the Cheese |
| Robert Cormier | The Chocolate War |
| Robert Lipsyte | One Fat Summer |
| S.E. Hinton | The Outsiders |
| Shel Silverstein | A Light in the Attic |
| Shel Silverstein | Where the Sidewalk Ends |
| Sinclair Lewis | Babbitt |
| Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
| Stephen King | Carrie |
| Stephen King | Christine |
| Stephen King | Cujo |
| Stephen King | Different Seasons |
| Stephen King | It |
| Stephen King | The Dead Zone |
| Stephen King | The Shining |
| Stephen King | The Stand |
| Susanna Kaysen | Girl, Interrupted |
| Sylvia Plath | The Bell Jar |
| Theodore Dreiser | Sister Carrie |
| Thomas J. Craughwell | Alligators in the Sewer |
| Thomas Rockwell | How to Eat Fried Worms |
| Toni Morrison | Beloved |
| V.C. Andrews | Flowers in the Attic |
| Victor Hugo | Les Miserables |
| Walt Whitman | Leaves of Grass |
| William Golding | Lord of the Flies |
| William S. Burroughs | Naked Lunch |
| Yevgeny Zamyatin | We |
| The Bible |
So, what are your favorite banned books?
