On behalf of Nation Banned Book Week (ugh), What books SHOULD be banned?

Question

these are banned books:
"Harry Potter" (Series) (J.K. Rowling)
"To Kill a Mockingbird" (Harper Lee)
"The Color Purple" (Alice Walker)
"The Outsiders" (S.E. Hinton)
"Lord of the Flies" (William Golding)
"Of Mice and Men" (John Steinbeck)
"Goosebumps" (Series) (R.L. Stine)
"How to Eat Fried Worms" (Thomas Rockwell)
"The Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger)
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Mark Twain)
"The Giver" (Lois Lowry)
"Brave New World" (Aldous Huxley)
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (Mark Twain)
"Captain Underpants" (Dav Pilkey)
"The Anarchist Cookbook" (William Powell)
"Carrie" (Stephen King)
"Flowers for Algernon" (Daniel Keyes)
"The Dead Zone" (Stephen King)
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (Maya Angelou)
"Go Ask Alice" (anonymous)
"American Psycho" (Bret Easton Ellis)
"The Chocolate War" (Robert Cormier)
"James and the Giant Peach" (Roald Dahl)
"The Pigman" (Paul Zindel)
"A Wrinkle in Time" (Madeleine L'Engle)

Answer 1

Not a single book should ever be banned. Just because, for whatever the reason, a person might not want to read a book themself or have their children read them does not give them the right to keep other people from having access to those books so they can read them.

Answer 2

100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature
by Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald, and Dawn B. Sova

Banned Books
by Anne Haight

Answer 3

Not that I'm one to quash the rights of youngsters everywhere in reading the latest installment of Harry Potter, but I do wonder if a number of books do bring merit to being read by the general public. Case in point, England's Muslim neighborhoods are full of bookstores carrying hateful literature from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and elsewhere inciting rampant and horrific violence against Christians and Jews. In many cases the literature was banned in the very Islamic countries that they were written in. Why? These books were so contrary to the beliefs of a civilized government that Muslim governments would allow them to be published. In another irony, these books call for an end to democracy and an abolishment of personal liberties outside those laid out by traditional Islamic law. It's almost comical that this radical literature, which calls for an end to freedom, has to be printed in a country that adheres to democracy and the freedom of press. Food for thought...

Answer 4

In South Africa during the apartheid years they banned "Black Beauty", (don't think the censors actually read the book, only the title and thought it must be bad) and Noddy (cause his best friend was black)
Banning books is stupid. If it gets teenagers to read, then that's good, and no one forces anyone to read a certain book, so why should publishing it be banned?

Answer 5

national banned books week celebrates the freedom to read.
it's not their fault those books are banned, they are just showing us what books are banned.

"Banned Books Week emphasizes the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them."

"According to the The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books, Challenges by Initiator, Institution, Type, and Year, parents challenge materials more often than any other group."

well, i can't think of any book that i think should be banned.

Answer 6

I've read quite a few of those books and don't think they should be banned. Prisons can keep people out of the mainstream of people, or at least the prisoners' bodies can't circulate, but ideas can't be caged!!!

Answer 7

None. No books should ever be banned, aren't we living in the US isn't there freedom of speech? Shouldn't people be allowed to read whatever the hell they want?

Answer 8

I too have read most of these books. I believe that NO books should be banned. Whatever happened to our freedom to decide what we want to read, and to make that decision for our children?

Answer 9

i didn't realize some of these books are banned. i've read over half of them. my library has banned book week and displays all the ones they carry in the front. people should be allowed to decide what they want to read.

Answer 10

I think I have read most of these. I don't believe any books should be banned parents should decide what their kids read.