All right peeps. I’ve finished round 4…and the final home stretch has begun. Check the Summer of Banned Books project page for an overall overview. Banned Book week starts 9/22 (NEXT WEEK, YO), you can check for any local events here. Bill Moyers, co-chair of Banned Books Week, created this video essay in honor of the 30th Anniversary of Banned Books Week and for the Banned Books Virtual Read-Out.
Round 4
- Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Go Tell it on the Mountain
- Winnie the Pooh
- The Giving Tree
- Invisible Man
- Song of Solomon
- Where the Wild Things Are
- The Lorax
- Where’s Waldo
- A Light in the Attic
Reading all the kid’s books was fun, and a nice break from the heavy-heavy of banned books. Apparently, books that are controversial can’t just be profane and funny. They seem to be meaningful and thoughtful, and have great, weighty messages about life. Of course, the kid’s books – the best kid’s books – aren’t all fun and games either.
Ok. Last round. Turns out to be the hardest core round of all, “the books I put off to the last minute” plus some poetry. I mean, what’s up Walt Whitman? Leaves of Grass is almost 700 pages? *Couldn’t you have just written some haiku??*
So here it is:
- In Cold Blood
- A Separate Peace
- Women In Love
- Rabbit, Run
- Brideshead Revisisted
- Les Fleurs du Mal
- Naked Lunch
- Howl
- Leaves of Grass
- The Naked and the Dead
- Sons & Lovers
I realized this morning that I have Norman Mailer sitting square between me and the end of this project so I’m giving myself to the end of Banned Book Week (vs finishing next weekend, as I’d originally hoped. It’s going to be a week of power-reading, that’s for sure.
Wish me luck!