Freedom to Read

“Everything I know about life, I’ve learned by reading banned books.” This is a quote on a pin my mom has in her kitchen. I love it because it’s so true!

This week (Sept 26 - Oct2) is National Banned Books Week, sponsored in part by the American Library Association, which celebrates the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. The movement started in 1982 because of the sudden increase in the number of challenges of books being reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom. Since 1982 alone, more than one thousand books have been challenged. Books are challenged because of many reasons including: sexual content; violence; profanity and slang; offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups; positive portrayals of homosexuals; etc. The range of challenged books includes new novels examining contemporary issues to beloved American classics. While many ideas in these books may be unorthodox or unpopular, it is important in our free society to ensure their availability for all who wish to read and access them.

Some people may think challenging or banning books was a thing of the past and doesn’t affect our literature today. However, in 2009, two of the most challenged titles included the Twilight series, by Stephanie Meyer (for being sexually explicit and its religious viewpoint) and My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult (for sexism, homosexuality, offensive language, drugs, suicide, and violence)

In support of this week, I started reading 1984 because I haven't read it yet, and I plan to reread The Catcher in the Rye. This is a list of 74 of the most popular challenged and/or banned classics. I’ve highlighted the ones I’ve read (23). I've seen movies for 9 others, but I don't think that counts, does it?! How many have you read?

1984, by George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Blubber, by Judy Blume
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer
Carrie, by Stephen King
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
Christine, by Stephen King
Confessions, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo, by Stephen King
Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
Decameron, by Boccaccio
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
Forever, by Judy Blume
Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Grendel, by John Champlin Gardner
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling
How to Eat Fried Worms, by Thomas Rockwell
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Impressions, edited by Jack Booth
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
My Friend Flicka, by Mary O'Hara
Native Son, by Richard Wright
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
On My Honor, by Marion Dane Bauer
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People, by Judith Guest
Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
Silas Marner, by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
The Living Bible, by William C. Bower
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare
The Pigman, by Paul Zindel
The Shining, by Stephen King
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
Then Again, Maybe I Won't, by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare
Ulysses, by James Joyce

Sunday Evening Diddies

I'm supposed to be studying right now but I decided instead to write. I don't really have alot to write about as far as an opinion on some important topic or anything....just some more updates and random thoughts.

Lou and I went camping last weekend and it was so much fun! I haven't camped in forever, and while I don't doubt my ability to survive the wilderness, I was a little concerned about certain things, like how many people would be around, and how many eight-legged creatures would be stalking me, and how many psycho killers would be lurking in the woods... The first and third issues weren't issues at all. The second, however, was almost a deal breaker. They were everywhere! Especially on our hike. They were scampering all over the place, running out in front of me and looking at me with their beady little eyes and then scurrying back under a rock to laugh as I screamed and ran by with my head in my hands. Stupid arachnids. I hate them. Other than that, it was a great trip, and one I hope we take more frequently (preferably to an arachnid-free zone).

Our tent was awesome!


Beautiful sunset over Lake Texoma.


Makin s'mores over the campfire.


After our 5 mile arachnid-infested hike.

As Lauren has already posted, our ten year high school reunion is coming up in October and I have to say, I am actually looking forward to it. As much as I loathe most of my high school years, there were some good times had and great memories made, and I really am excited to see some people. Most of them I could really care less about though, but I'm sure that's how it is with everyone. I can't honestly think that people change so much as to give a rats ass now about someone they didn't give a rats ass about 10 years ago... I'm more interested in just seeing what happened to people; not so much to make fun of them, but just to see how life's ironies played out. Did the popular kids marry each other and have beautiful children and buy a mansion? Is the nerdy kid still nerdy or is he a smoking hot business man? Is the girl who tried to beat me up in middle school still a bully? These are things I wish to find out. I know that alot of it is going to be, "Oh my gosh! HOW ARE YOU!" kind of bullshit and people will pretend to care for the few hours we're together, but the reality is that once its over, these people will return to real life and forget how, for just a few hours, we were "besties" again. That might be a little cynical of me but hey, I'm a realist. I do think it will be fun though. And I really AM excited to see some people. The plan is to go to our homecoming football game and then have drinks at the Fox and Hound afterwords; Saturday will be more formal with dinner and dancing at the Branding Iron at Firewheel. I hope they play Far East Movement "Like a G6" as I walk in. That would be my theme song of choice. HAH.

In other news, my brother, Eric, left a couple of weeks ago for his Peace Corps assignment in Morocco. He'll be there a total of 27 months; the first three of which involve training in Casablanca, I think. After that he'll be assigned to a smaller town or village where he'll be in charge of youth development and business development. He is really excited about it and I know he'll be making a huge difference in those peoples' lives. He is supposed to be documenting his adventures on his own blog; as soon as he gets that together I'll post a link to it here. Before he left, I had some pictures taken of us to give to our parents and family, etc. I think they came out pretty good :-) (Thanks Mindy!) Here's a sneak peak:


Big sister, little brother.





P.S. GO COWBOYS!!!!

Changes and Updates

Loving this crazy weather we're having! It's a nice change from the constant warm sunniness we've had the last part of this summer. Change is good. Freshens things up a bit. So I hope it pours s'more over the next couple of days so I can wash all this stale funkiness off of me and start the fall nice and freshhhhh. So fresh and so clean, clean. ;-)

Speaking of change, there are lots of changes happening lately. To name a few:

• changes at work....hopefully for the good, but we'll see how it works out
  
• new classes in school! looking forward to finance...ironically
• graduated to "high blue belt" in taekwondo...only 4 more to black!
• Bubba leaves for Morocco in 5 days for his 27 month Peace Corps assigment :-(
• starting a 28 day "detox" beginning next week...need to cleanse my system
  
• started working out/running in the mornings (eww)...its been interesting....

In other news, I've been a busy little bee going here and going there and doing this and doing that. We took a family vacation to Cedar Creek Lake and it was ah-mazing and very relaxing. We rented a boat one day and went tubing and water skiing, and that pretty much made the entire vacation for me. That and the awesome volleyball game we had the last evening.

my silly daddy


lou going fishing


total relaxation


everyone!

Took another sewing class at City Craft with momma. We learned how to make decorative pillows with cording and invisible zippers. We had a great time and our pillows came out very nicely! I like hers better!!! So fall!


Flew out to Ooooodessa a few weekends ago to visit my friend Angela. We pretty much did everything there is to do in Odessa in a few short days: saw Ratliff stadium; ate at a BYOB italian restaurant; went to Music City Mall; ate at Jum Burrito; wore cowboy boots; saw dust blow; drank the best milkshakes (bring all the boys to the yard) at Texas Burger; ate the best pizza at Patrino's; saw about 100 exotic animals including elephants, giraffes, buffalo, cheetahs, a skunk..... It was a great time!!!!

cowboy boots


chocolate malt


brunch


RICH.