Banned Books

Talking about banned books to any bibliophile can get them fuming quickly. The idea that superiors can create an opinion themselves about a book and ban it for everyone else is a little ridiculous. One argument some people propose when it comes to challenged books (books that are on death row) is if the people who want to ban the books have read them at all. The American Library Association has a whole website dedicated to banned books with lists of books that have been challenged or banned and ways that people who love these books can fight against them. For example, I am a classic novel lover so I hit up the list of challenged classic books. The list had 46 books on it, and out of all these books I have read or want to read 31 books. This goes to show that not only am I reading these books, but so are other people, no matter what the content of the book. Books can be banned for sexual content, drug usage, or for language. In defense, most of these themes that are considered banned are relevant to everyday life. I can vouch that not a day goes by where I hear at school something about sex, drugs, or language (or all three, unfortunately). For example, Looking for Alaska by John Green was up to being banned for it’s depiction of sex, even though it is a book about curious teenagers. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has been banned in schools across America for its repeated use of the ‘n-word’. I can realize that some parents don’t want their children to read this but they need to understand that that was the language used at the time, it is a part of American culture. Some blogs I have seen on WordPress blog on Banned Books Week, seven days where banned books are challenged for being challenged or they post about books that have been banned yet still contain wonderful things waiting to be read. Banned books are a controversial topic and I think that no books should be banned because every book has something special in it, no matter it’s content.

Big Books

Don’t let the title of this post fool you: small books can hold a lot of amazing content, too. Big books, however, have the physical capacity for more. When at the library (and when I know I have the time) I always search for a large book. That way, it fills up a lot of the extra reading time I have. Finishing big books leaves me with an awesome sense of accomplishment. For example, Gone With the Wind, one of my favorite books, has 1,037 pages. Finishing that book gave me a great sense of relief and I felt overall more intelligent, mostly because it was a historical novel, but also because it held so much content that was based in fact. I don’t want to put small books down, though. F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most amazing writers ever and none of his books exceed 400 pages. This shows what an amazing author he is because he can get all of the wonderful content inside his head into a small book that will be cherished for years to come.

What I also love is a big amount of books. If I know that I’m going on a holiday break, I stock up on as many books that I can. Sadly the school library only allows that I check out 6. However, the public library lets me check out as many as I want! Unfortunately, I live far from the library, putting me out of bounds to use the library. Do you see my predicament here?! However, my boyfriend lives out of town, but the town he lives in has a library so I use it. Going on break gives me a lot of time to catch up on my reading and finish that giant list that will keep me busy for a million years. I usually get large books that will take up plenty of time, even though I’m a speed reader.

Books are awesome. That is all there is to it. They provide entertainment, education, and release from boredom. Picking up a book, reading it, and finishing it gives one a sense of accomplishment that nothing else can compare to. Big books are filled with so much content that makes you feel smarter in the end. So go ahead and pick up a big book-don’t be frightened by the size and just read it. You will never know what will happen if you don’t.