Bookie Mee | ALA Banned Books Week 2009

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01.Oct.2009 ALA Banned Books Week 2009

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I should mention it. September 26 to October 3, 2009 is ALA Banned Books week. I soo soo love the poster above. I tried to order the shirt, but they only do US shipping :(

Freedom to read is something that I surely take for granted for time to time, since I am now living in a country where it’s so much freer than where my family lived before. To think that my own father at one time had to burn all his Chinese books because Indonesian government forbade everything Chinese — no Chinese school, no Chinese characters, and definitely no Chinese books. Whoever caught for possessing them was going to be in big trouble. He still talks about it sometimes, how he had to run home one day, gather all his books, and burn them down. He always loves books. I can’t imagine how heartbroken he must’ve been. I can’t imagine if I’m ever forced to burn my books!

It’s good to step back to think, how lucky I am now to live in such a free country when there are so many places in this world where freedom to read is not appreciated, or non-existent in extreme cases. How lucky I am to have such abundant resources of books. I can go to the nearest library whenever I want and choose any books out of thousands. To think that I have lived in a country where reading resources was so limited that at one time I thought I had finished reading the whole library, therefore stopped going — and in effect, stopped reading.

I just rekindled my love of reading a few years ago, after a long journey of adapting and searching (Can you believe the average number of books I read between 2003 and 2006 was 6 per year? Before that, for many years, something close to zero). That explains my insatiable hunger to read now. Books after books, world after world. Oh, the possibilities! The knowledge! I can’t believe there’s so much I’d been missing!

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ps: As a bonus, I just found out that I am currently reading a book that has been banned/challenged in 2008-2009 (pdf file). It’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire — apparently banned for sexual content.

I also joined Banned Book Challenge 2009 earlier this year (March-June). I read four books: The Color Purple, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For last year Banned Books Week I read Forever by Judy Blume. Loved them all, of course :).

Are you reading any banned books in celebration?

13 Comments

Tags: banned, news

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There are 13 Comments to "ALA Banned Books Week 2009"

Suko says:

2 October 2009 at 1:44 am

Mee, I don’t think I’m currently reading a banned book–although it could be banned somewhere. We are so lucky to be able to choose what we want to read when we want to read it. This is a wonderful freedom!

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- mee says:
  
  3 October 2009 at 7:44 am
  
  You’re right Suko. We never know if the books we’re reading now are banned somewhere. Makes me sad to think about it really.
  
  Reply
Gnoe says:

2 October 2009 at 6:20 pm

Yes, I hadn’t heard of BBW until this year and on Tuesday I picked up #3 on the Banned and Challenged Classics list: Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Coincidently I also read #4 on the list in September: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.
[Gnoe´s last blog: September Readathon Progress Update: Wednesday]

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- mee says:
  
  3 October 2009 at 7:48 am
  
  I think I just heard about it last year, sort of. Around the time I started blogging and read people’s blogs anyway. But it’s understandable because we don’t live in US, it being a US event and all. I don’t think we have something similar in Australia.
  
  I’ve been meaning to read Grapes of Wrath, but as usual, get put off by the thickness. To Kill a Mockingbird is on my shelf. Both should be great!
  
  Reply
  - Gnoe says:
    
    3 October 2009 at 10:29 pm
    
    My Penguin copy of The Grapes of Wrath isn’t thick at all… or at least it seems so LOL.
    It is quite thin but the print is small and there appear to be 416 pages anyway. It was sent to me as an rabck so I couldn’t NOT read it. Especially since it is part of several of my challenges! I had to get into it but now I thin I am going to like it. To Kill a Mockingbird was a great read as well.
    
    Reply
    - mee says:
      
      4 October 2009 at 11:36 am
      
      For some reason I always have the impression that it’s a thick book. I’m sure it’s a great read. I hope to pick it up next year.
      
      Reply
Jennifer says:

3 October 2009 at 1:23 am

Thanks for writing this post! It seems that banned books week sneaked (snuck?) up on me this year. I’m going to link to your post in my blog.

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- mee says:
  
  3 October 2009 at 7:49 am
  
  Thanks Jennifer. Hope you have a great banned book read!
  
  Reply
bibliobibuli says:

3 October 2009 at 10:29 am

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment. You’re right to celebrate your freedom to read. Wish ALA’s Banned books Week was an international event and maybe we should put a bit of pressure on them to make it so.

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- mee says:
  
  3 October 2009 at 12:37 pm
  
  That sounds great and I’d fully support that biblio, but I’m not sure how we would ‘put a pressure on them’ really.
  
  Reply
Nymeth says:

3 October 2009 at 5:21 pm

It’s really very easy to take our freedom to read for granted, so I really appreciate initiatives like BBW which remind us not to. My parents grew up in a fascist dictatorship, and they tell me stories about reading smuggled copies of Steinbeck’s novels. They, like many other things, were banned by the censors.
[Nymeth´s last blog: The Secret History by Donna Tart]

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- mee says:
  
  4 October 2009 at 11:38 am
  
  I’ve never read Steinbeck’s so I don’t know what the fuss is all about. Hopefully I can read one some time next year. I do hope that we could make BBW an International event as there are so many places around the world where extreme censorship happens.
  
  Reply
Wicked by Gregory Maguire and the Musical! | Books of Mee says:

24 October 2009 at 3:21 pm

[...] I mentioned earlier how this book is on the list of 2009 ALA Banned Books for sexual content. There is some nudity but I don’t recall overly explicit sexual scenes, apart from one performed by puppets (yes, really, but it’s quite morbid). Apart from that there are definitely some violence, extreme bullying, and murders (doh!). It’s most probably banned because ignorant people assume it’s a fluffy prequel of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written for children. It is NOT. Once again, it is NOT children book. [...]

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