At the beginning of June (2013) I decided to take on a new reading project, and get prepped for Banned Books Week – this year it’s September 22−28.

Every year the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the top ten books that are most frequently challenged in libraries and schools around the country. They also have lists on Frequently Challenged Books of the 21st Century, 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books by Decade – and my favorite – Banned/Challenged Classics. As it turns out, attempts have been made to ban nearly half (at least 46) of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century.

When I picked up the idea, I thought I’d read maybe a dozen books off the classics list and call it a day. But since it is mid-July and I’m cruising down the list, I’m upping the ante. Also since I started this project I’ve come across some new lists:

• The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund‘s list of Banned & Challenged comics: technically this is a list of case studies, rather than a “top” list determined by frequency of challenge attempts
• This Buzzfeed article on classic children’s books that have been banned in America: I know — a Buzzfeed article? But the list was cobbled together from a Banned Book Awareness project that is interesting
• Some lists of banned poetry (e.g. Banned & Dangerous Art, some item’s on Penn’s Banned Books page)

Since the classics get pretty heavy, i’m happy to cut the list with comics, kid’s books, & poetry. The general method to my reading list is I’m burning through the classics list, picking selectively from the annual top 10 lists, and mixing in from the “theme” lists.

So what am I reading:

There are 46 boks on the Banned/Challenged Classics list.

Of those, I’ve read at least 22  – potentially plus  a few that I’m not sure about, will need to check and confirm. I’ve also taken the opportunity to re-read 1984, To Kill A Mockingbird, and parts of Ulysses. This has yielded the following list of 23 books:

As of mid-July, I’m about halfway done with the classics. Here are some of the other books to be included – most of these are new but there are some re-reads in comics and all of the kids’ books are currently re-reads:

Annual top-10 lists

• And Tango Makes 3 – Kids book
• l8r, g8r – Young Adult
• The Adventures of Captain Underpants
• The Color of Earth (also on Comics list)

Comics

• Fun Home
• Ice Haven
• Persepolis
• The Dark Knight Strikes Again
• Blankets
• Stuck in the Middle
• Tank Girl
• The Color of Earth (also on Annual list)

Kids Books

• Where’s Waldo?
• Winnie the Pooh
• The Giving Tree
• The Lorax
• Where the Wild Things Are
• A Light in the Attic (also on Poetry list)

Poetry

• Ginsberg (Howl)
• Whitman (Leaves of Grass)
• Silverstein (A Light in the Attic, also on Kids list)
• Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du Mal)

As I finish each book, I post a quick update here. I’ve broken the list into “sprints” to make it easier for myself to gauge progress.

Also, it turns out I read faster than I write, so I’m running a backlog of roughly 3-6 books for the past few weeks (meaning, I’ve read more than I’ve reported on the blog).