Banned books week preparation

It’s hard to know what to write about censorship- since I’m trying to blog about it yearly and still say fresh and new things to keep the debate alive, it’s a struggle sometimes.

The problem is, books are still being censored. People are still afraid of the written word.

Recent books censored:

• Haruki Murakami‘s Norwegian Wood and Nic Sheff‘s Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines – for homosexual scenes
• Arthur Conan Doyle‘s “A Study in Scarlet”- for being derogatory toward Mormons
• Suzanne Collins‘ The Hunger Games series- sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group (Uh, I’ve read this series. Where is there sex? Is it when two characters sleep together for comfort? Where sex is never hinted at?)
• Stephanie Meyer‘s Twilight series- for being sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group
• The top 10 banned books of 2010

Twilight. That’s interesting. I have not read it, but I’ve read enough about it to know I’m not interested in reading it, and from what I understand, it’s all about an emotionally abusive relationship much like the one I had in college. I’m done thinking that’s romantic. I probably wouldn’t let my kid read it for quite some time.

But would I ban it? Would I demand my kid’s school, or the public library, remove it from the shelves?

No.

More in a few weeks. Banned Books Week is Sept. 24-Oct. 1.