Banned books...

[fajrdrako]

It was pointed out to me today that this is Banned Book Week. Sounds like a reason to celebrate! And as a matter of fact, just yesterday I was reading a book that is apparently... not exactly banned, but not sold in many places because people consider it dangerous or bannable. It's Alan Moore's erotic graphic novel, Lost Girls. I don't usually like sexual material written by men, but this one is pretty damn hot, and interesting in other ways. In odd ways. Alan Moore is always odd. That's why he's good: an original voice and mind. Rare enough in any medium, especially comics and porn.

I instantly added a question to my personal 30 day book meme list: "What is your favourite banned book?" and looked at the lists. Was surprised at how many I'd read - well, just about any significant book has been banned somewhere, somehow, and since Catcher in the Rye is on many lists, I suppose I could point to that. Or Lolita, which I think is beautifully written, though I've never read anything else by Nabokov.

I looked at this list of 16 banned books and was amused to see I'd read all but three, The God of Small Things, Howl, and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Some of them were pretty boring.

Interesting in the comments about banning The Da Vinci Code in Lebanon for being insulting to Jesus: seems to me that's the mindset regarding insults to Mohammed being transferred to Christianity - really, a cultural thing as much as it's religion. And this article has some interesting comments; again, I've read most of the books mentioned, except Zundel and Locke. But they are, generally speaking, citing classics.

Oh course, I love the irony that Fahrenehit 451 is on the banned book lists. (It's a book about book-burning.)

So what's your favourite banned book?