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Put Out the Fires! Banned Books Week 2009

Posted By Monica Valentinelli On September 27, 2009 @ 5:08 am In Blogs | 7 Comments

Here at FlamesRising.com, even though we usually enjoy reading about the fires of hell or burning zombies, there’s one thing we don’t like reading about — lighting books on fire. From September 26th through October 3rd 2009, the American Library Association (ALA) is featuring Banned Books Week [1], which celebrates the Freedom to Read within the United States.

Instead of lighting a candle to commemorate this year’s holiday, FlamesRising.com recommends either buying or checking out some of these fine books that have been banned for one reason or another. Remember, this is only a small sampling of the 513 books that were challenged in 2008 within the United States. Here is a PDF download of the books challenged in 2007/2008 from the ALA [2].

This year, the ALA offered a download of the Banned Books Week manifesto in PDF, which was written by Ellen Hopkins. It ended with, “A word to the Unwise. Torch every book. Char every page. Burn every word to ash. Ideas are incombustible. Therein lies your real fear.”

For more information about Banned Books Week, be sure to visit your local library for events and other news. UPDATE: Please note that the link to the Banned Books Manifesto PDF download resulted in a 404 error, so we removed it.

Selection of Books that have been Challenged or Banned in the U.S.

This list of books is a small selection of titles that have been challenged or banned in the U.S. This list is by no means comprehensive, nor will it ever be up-to-date. Merely, this list is meant to provide you with an idea of the books challenged within the horror genre. As we mentioned above, be sure to check with your local library for more information about Banned Books Week and see how you can help.

Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Carrie by Stephen King
Christine by Stephen King
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

Write - Available Now @ DriveThruFiction.com [3]


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URLs in this post:

[1] Banned Books Week: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

[2] PDF download of the books challenged in 2007/2008 from the ALA: http://www.ila.org/pdf/2008banned.pdf

[3] Image: http://www.drivethrufiction.com/browse.php?filters=44482_0_0_0_0&affiliate_id=22713&src=FlamesRising

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