SBU Libraries Honors Banned Books Week

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Janet Clarke

This Sunday marks the first day of Banned Books Week, when readers throughout the nation are encouraged to embrace their freedom to read.

It is important to recognize the harm that censorship of words, thoughts, and ideas can have on a society. This is a freedom that must be defended. “Each year, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms.” (ala.org) So help the Library and take a stand by taking the time to read a banned or challenged book that librarians and educators have fought to keep in our schools and on our shelves!

To show your support for this cause, the Library is offering Banned Book edition Get Your Read On buttons. Stop by the Galleria Information Desk or the Reference Desk in the Central Reading Room to get yours while they last, beginning Monday, September 22nd.

Members of Alpha Nu Zeta will also be running a fundraising effort at our Galleria Information Desk, selling ribbons (which can be used as a bookmark) for $1 to draw awareness to this event. Feel free to visit the desk Monday through Thursday, between the hours of 10am and 3pm to get a ribbon and button.

Below is a list of most banned or challenged classics, taken from ALA.org. Visit their site to see more titles and authors that are or have been frequently challenged.

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
38. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
66. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike