14 Banned Books That Are Free Online

For local communities, banning books means removing them from the shelves of local libraries, schools, and bookstores. As a result, physical copies of these books can no longer be accessed by those in the community who want to read them.
 

Slaughterhouse-Five, one of many banned books available for free online.
Image via Wordpress.com

What if you're a member of the community, and you still want to read these banned books? What if the libraries, schools, or bookstores in your area never carried these books to begin with? What if there are no bookstores where you live, or the local library was closed for good because of a lack of funding? What if you're physically unable to go to the library or bookstore because of an illness or disability? That's where the Internet comes in.

Many banned books are available for you to read, absolutely free, on the Internet. On the occasion of this year's Banned Books Week, the people at OpenCulture.com listed fourteen of these books; offered explanations for why each of these fourteen books were challenged, banned, or even burned; and provided links leading you to where you can read these books for free online.

Included among the fourteen books that OpenCulture reveals are available for free online are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ("It did see a 1987 challenge at the Baptist College in Charleston, South Carolina, for 'language' and 'sexual references'); 1984 by George Orwell ("The novel was challenged in Jackson County, Florida, in 1981 for its supposedly 'pro-communist' message, in addition to its 'explicit sexual matter'); In Cold Blood by Truman Capote ("This true crime classic was banned, then reinstated, at Savannah, Georgia's Windsor Forest High School in 2000 after a parent 'complained about sex, violence, and profanity'); and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut ("It's been removed from a sophomore reading list at the Coventry, Rhode Island, high school in 2000; challenged by an organization called LOVE (Livingstone Organization for Values in Education) in Howell, Michigan, in 2007; and challenged, but retained, along with eight other books, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, in 2006").

For these banned books, OpenCulture.com provides links to electronic versions that are compatible with Kindle e-readers, iPads, and iPhones. Some are links to audiobooks of these titles. Other links are to online versions of these books that can be read in HTML and Plain Text formats. All of these books are free for you to read online, at your leisure, and away from the prying eyes of the busybodies in your local community.

To see all fourteen of these banned titles - and for links to the free, electronic versions of these books - see the OpenCulture.com article "Read 14 Great Banned & Censored Novels Free Online: For Banned Books Week 2014" at THIS LINK.

Stan Lee Speaks Out in Video for Banned Books Week

Lately, I've been all about Marvel films. It started with Thor, the 2011 superhero movie starring Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-wielding title character. 

Stan Lee (left) with Chris Hemsworth, star of the 2011 Marvel film Thor.
Image via the interwebs

After watching Thor, I offered my none-too-favorable opinion of the film through a social media outlet. Almost immediately, friends whom I didn't know were comic book geeks chimed in, saying I had to watch the Marvel films in a certain order in order to fully understand and appreciate each one. Two of these friends even presented the chronological output of these films so that I could watch them in the order that they were released. From that point, there was no turning back.

Of course, there would be no Marvel films without Marvel Comics, the publishing powerhouse that releases comic books featuring Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, X-Men, and other now-iconic characters that were co-created by Stan Lee. Lee is undeniably the face of Marvel Comics, appearing at comic conventions and making cameos in films based on Marvel comic books, among other acts of publicity.

Lee is, not surprisingly, a huge proponent of the comic book as a medium. He sees comic books as integral to fostering a love of reading in children, who for decades have been engaged by comics' stunning visuals, larger-than-life characters, and gripping storylines. Lee also supports the freedom to read comic books, poo-pooing pushes throughout the years to ban them.

In a video produced by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), Stan Lee speaks out against the banning of comic books, just in time for Banned Books Week. You can watch the video at THIS LINK.

Best Film Adaptations of Banned Books

When I sat down to watch the French animated film Persepolis, released in the United States in 2007, I had no idea the emotional journey it would take me on. 
 

A scene from the excellent 2007 film adaption of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.
Image via unionfilms.org

This adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's comic on coming of age during the Iranian Revolution had me riveted from start to finish, and it evoked a range of feelings. As the end credits rolled, I was so moved that I bought the books Persepolis and Persepolis 2, eager to devour the source material.

I'm sure Persepolis is one of the rare films adapted from books that has exceeded the expectations of fans of the books. The Persepolis comic series has also been routinely challenged or banned based on its content, which makes its translation to the big screen all the more daring and important. However, it is just one of a number of banned books that have been successfully brought to the silver screen.

On the occasion of Banned Books Week, Kristin Fritz has recognized other banned titles that have been adapted into films with great success. In "Banned to the Big Screen: 10 Great Banned Books Adaptations," her article for Word & Film, she highlights the best of these cinematic translations. Among them is To Kill a Mockingbird, based on the 1960 novel by Harper Lee. "In spite of many efforts across the world to ban Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, it has sold more than thirty million copies," says Fritz. "The 1962 movie adaptation, starring Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, and Robert Duvall, won three Academy Awards and was nominated for an additional five." Indeed, To Kill a Mockingbird is an immensely powerful film that does the book great justice.

Fritz also calls attention to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which originated as the 1962 novel written by Ken Kesey. It focuses on a group of male patients at a psychiatric hospital in Oregon, and the story of their lives at the facility is told from the perspective of Chief Bromden, a fellow patient who is Native American and is assumed to be deaf and mute. The central character is Randall Jack Murphy, who is faking insanity to avoid a prison sentence. According to Fritz, the novel "has been called 'pornographic' and 'garbage.' Milos Forman brought the book to the screen in 1975 with an adaptation starring Jack Nicholson, Will Sampson, and Louise Fletcher. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actress, and Best Lead Actor." Having seen the film more than once, I can say that it definitely merits all of the accolades.

In addition to To Kill a Mockingbird and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Fritz mentions other stellar movies based on banned books, including Where the Wild Things Are, the 2009 film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic 1963 children's picture book; The Lord of the Rings movies, first brought to the big screen in 2001 and based on the epic fantasy trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien; and Easy A, the 2010 film whose inspiration was The Scarlet Letter, the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

For a complete list and detailed description of each of the banned books that Kristin Fritz recognizes as being deftly adapted to the big screen, see her article "Banned to the Big Screen: 10 Great Banned Books Adaptations," at THIS LINK.

It's Banned Books Week!

The freedom to read whatever we want is something many of us take for granted. That's why there is an annual awareness campaign called Banned Books Week. 
 

Image via http://www.tophermacdonald.com

Begun in 1982 by Judith Krug, a First Amendment and library activist, Banned Books Week takes place every September and is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA). The campaign goes beyond libraries, however. It also promotes the freedom to read in schools and bookstores all across the country.

"By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship," according to the ALA website. "While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available."

Books tend to be banned because someone in the local community, often the parent of a school-aged child, objects to their presence in a school or library because of their content, which this person deems inappropriate for children. Objectionable content often has to do with language, sexual references or imagery, representations of homosexuality, allusions to witchcraft, and more.

However, before a book is banned, it is first challenged. In response to librarians facing book or material challenges, the Intellectual Freedom Committee stated in 1986 that challenges can come in the form of 1) an expression of concern; 2) an oral complaint; 3) a written complaint; 4) a public attack; or 5) outright censorship, all because someone objects to the book's content.

Books challenged on the basis of their content have included The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Color Purple by Alice Walker; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey; And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnel; the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling; and Forever by Judy Blume.

Despite the opposition to these books' content, they have continued to remain available. "This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read," according to the ALA on its website.

Banned Books Week is September 21 to 27, 2014. On the occasion of this year's celebration, express your freedom to read by proudly reading a banned book.

Progressive Librarians Hit the Pavement

When people think of librarians, they may envision cardigan-wearing introverts huddling behind a towering stack of books. Or perhaps, in their mind's eye, they see a stern matronly figure glowering over her glasses at patrons. It can be hard to imagine librarians pushing aside book carts and picking up picket signs, but that's precisely what the members of the Progressive Librarians Guild do.
 

Progressive Librarians Guild members take part in an OccupyMN protest in 2011.
Image via http://stkatemlis.blogspot.com

The Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG) was formed in 1990 in New York City. According to its "Statement of Purpose," found on its website, the PLG does "not accept the sterile notion of neutrality of librarianship, and we strongly oppose the commidification of information which turns the 'information commons' into privatized, commercialized zones. We will help to dissect the implications of these powerful trends, and fight their anti-democratic tendencies."

With chapters across the United States and Canada, the PLG takes part in a range of political actions in order to combat "anti-democratic tendencies." Among these actions are supporting Occupy Wall Street; fighting against censorship; resisting the privatization of public libraries; condemning the blocking of Wikileaks by the Library of Congress; opposing book banning, including Tuscon, Arizona's ban on Mexican-American books in its schools; addressing issues of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and privilege in its journal, Progressive Librarian; being antiwar; and affiliating itself with the group Librarians for Peace.
 

PLG buttons made by the London, Ontario, chapter.
Image via http://plglondon.wordpress.com

In addition to maintaining a website, issuing bulletins and journals, printing buttons, and picketing, the Progressive Librarians Guild also gets its message across through social media. The PLG has a continuous presence on Twitter, and its many North American chapters are active on Facebook. 

If you would like to know more about the Progressive Librarians Guild, you can check out its website, follow it on Twitter, find a chapter on Facebook, subscribe to the PLG list, or write to the following address for general information:

Progressive Librarians Guild
MLIS Program
St. Catherine University
2004 Randolph Avenue, $4125
St. Paul, MN 55105

If you want to become a member of the Progressive Librarians Guild, you can do so at THIS LINK. Membership dues are $20 for individuals and $10 for students and those who are low-income. "Please note," says the website, "that if you are joining a chapter - either an existing one or one that you are creating - half of your dues are paid to the PLG chapter you join and half get sent to the PLG. If you are a regular member, $10 stay with the chapter and $10 get sent to the PLG. If you are a student or low-income, $5 stay with the chapter and $5 get sent to PLG."

OK, fellow librarians and library students: Out of the stacks and into the streets!

Banned Books Week: Children's Classics Edition

On this final day of Banned Books Week 2013, let's take a look at the classics of children's literature that some adults have deemed unsuitable for young minds. 

That Wilbur the pig and the other animals on Zuckerman's farm could talk is "an insult to God," according to those who've banned Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White.

 
For reasons that range from "too depressing" to "promoting witchcraft" to "criminalizing the foresting industry," many classics of children's literature have been routinely banned in the United States. Buzzfeed compiled a list of the "15 Children's Books That Have Been Banned in America." Some of them are:
  

Immediately following its initial publication in 1963, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are was targeted by a number of Southern U.S. states for promoting "witchcraft and supernatural events," according to Buzzfeed.

Since the 1960s, Alice in Wonderland (also Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) by Lewis Carroll has been banned out of fear that it promotes drug use to children, reported Buzzfeed. I have to say that listening to Jefferson Airplane's 1967 hit "White Rabbit" has recently got me to purchase a copy of Alice so that I can see if I can pick up on any drug references re-reading it as an adult.

As was the case with Charlotte's Web, Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne has also become forbidden reading because Pooh and the other animal inhabitants of Hundred Acre Wood can talk and thus are "an insult to God," said Buzzfeed.

Of all books, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary was banned because an edition of it contains the definition of oral sex, thus offending the sensibilities of some adults residing in the state of California, according to Buzzfeed.

To take a look at all "15 Classic Children's Books That Have Been Banned in America," check out Buzzfeed's article at THIS LINK. 

All above images from http://www.buzzfeed.com 

Hey! Got Your 'I Read Banned Books' Tote Bag?

Now for sale at New York City's Strand Books! You can order yours online HERE.

Banned Books Trading Cards: Collect 'Em All!

When I was a kid, trading cards featuring the likenesses of athletes, comic book heroes, and more came in packages of bubble gum, inside cereal boxes, and other consumer-friendly containers that appealed to children. It became a big deal among my classmates to collect an entire series of trading cards, and the frenzy to swap cards reached a fever pitch during lunch breaks and recess.

Front of a banned book trading card from Lawrence Public Library.

Image via http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org

The appeal of trading cards is still strong these days, a fact that the staff of Lawrence Public Library recognized when coming up with banned books trading cards. Specifically, Susan Brown, the marketing director of the public library in Lawrence, Kansas, got the idea to produce these cards as a way to heighten awareness of intellectual freedom, particularly during Banned Books Week.
 

Back of a banned book trading card from Lawrence Public Library.

Image via http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org

"Libraries usually have a display of banned books and maybe a Read Out or panel discussion about censorship," Brown told the Library as Incubator Project. "I was thinking of new says to get the message out." Once funding was secured, in the form of a $1,000 grant from the Freedom to Read Foundation that was matched by the Friends of the Lawrence Public Library, the project to create banned books trading cards was green-lit.

For the front of the cards, local artists designed small-scale works that were inspired by the banned book and its author. Brown provided the information for the back of the cards, including the title of the book and its author, the reason why it was banned, the name of the artist responsible for the work on the front of the card, the artist's statement, and the logos of partnering institutions.
 

2013 banned books trading cards from Lawrence Public Library.

Image from http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us

The banned books trading cards have proven to be such a hit that other libraries have followed suit, including the Chapel Hill Public Library in North Carolina.

For each day of Banned Books Week this year, the Library as Incubator Project is featuring banned books trading cards from the Lawrence Public Library and the Chapel Hill Public Library on its website. You can take a look HERE.

For Banned Books Week: Essential LGBT Literature

Hooray! Banned Books Week is underway! Happening September 22 through 28, this is a nationwide celebration of everyone's freedom to read whatever books they want. This annual event also brings attention to censorship when it comes to books that are challenged or outright banned because of their content.

In Our Mothers' House, a children's book on a multiracial family headed by a lesbian couple, is routinely on banned books lists, according to the ACLU.

"Challenges are motivated by a desire to protect children from 'inappropriate' sexual content or 'offensive' language," according to the American Library Association (ALA). These challenges are typically brought forth by members of the local community who object to a school or library carrying a particular title. Many titles that have been objected have an LGBT focus. Two recent examples are children's books Tango Makes Three and In Our Mothers' House, reported the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In honor of Banned Books Week, I'm sharing with you a list of LGBT works of nonfiction that many people consider essential and that everyone should be allowed to read. Compiled by Flavorwire, this list includes:

The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America, by Charles Kaiser
"Kaiser's historical look at how gay men informed the culture of America's urban areas - particularly New York City - spans 56 years from the periods of silent acceptance, the tumultuous pre-Stonewall years, the empowering '70s, and the AIDS crisis of the '80s" - Flavorwire

Before Night Falls/Antes que anochezca, by Reinaldo Arenas
"The internationally renowned poet shares his life story, from his adolescence spent fighting for the Castro regime to his imprisonment for his sexuality to his flight from Cuba to his deathbed in New York City" - Flavorwire (The 2000 film adaption alerted the world to the awesomeness that is Javier Bardem!)

Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin, by John D'Emilio
"Bayard Rustin was responsible for teaching the principles of nonviolent protest to Martin Luther King Jr., yet his status as an openly gay man in the midst of the civil rights movement kept him from being recognized for the efforts and activism he accomplished" - Flavorwire

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, by Randy Shilts
"Shilts' indelible and controversial reporting on the AIDS epidemic not only reveals the origins of the virus' spread but also examines the ramifications of the medical community and the government's ignorance of the crisis" - Flavorwire (This book was also adapted into a movie, in 1993.)

Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde
"This collection of speeches and essays from the influential and outspoken Audre Lorde touches on racism, sexism, and homophobia without losing a sense of hope for positive results in the face of class struggles" - Flavorwire (Also worth reading is Lorde's autobiography, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.)

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel
"Alison Bechdel's gorgeous and heartbreaking graphic memoir follows the artist as she grapples with both her own sexuality and the revelation that her cold, distant father led a secret life as a gay man" - Flavorwire (If you're a fan of graphic novels/comics, check out Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For, her long-running comic series that also comes in book form.)

Ceremonies, by Essex Hemphill
"Hemphill's collection of poetry and commentary tackles the experience of being an African American and a gay man in a society that refuses to accept both" - Flavorwire (For more on the late poet and activist, watch Tongues Untied, the 1989 semi-documentary directed by Marlon Riggs.)

Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us, by Kate Bornstein
"Legendary transgender activist and writer Kate Bornstein details her transition from a heterosexual man to a lesbian woman in this modern classic about challenging gender and cultural norms" - Flavorwire

See Flavorwire's entire list of "25 Essential Works of LGBT Non-Fiction" HERE.

John Waters Reads from 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'

On the occasion of Banned Books Week, which runs from September 30 through October 6 this year, John Waters appeared at a San Francisco bookstore to read from an often-banned book, D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover.

John Waters with more wholesome reading.
Photo source: http://www.thefader.com

The cult filmmaker, compiler of quirky CD collections, and occasional voice actor was at City Lights Bookstore, itself no stranger to controversy over books deemed obscene. (In the most famous instance, City Lights was targeted by both local and federal authorities in the late 1950s for printing and selling Howl, a slender and subversive book of poetry by countercultural icon Allen Ginsberg.) On Wednesday, October 3, 2012, Waters sat down to read from Lawrence's sexually frank literary masterpiece at City Lights. You can watch a video of the in-store reading below.

Bangladesh Teacher Arrested Over Banned Book

A teacher at a college in southern Bangladesh was arrested and could be jailed for up to three years. What was his crime? He may have approved the inclusion of a banned book in the school's library.

image source: http://gisbornelibrary.wordpress.com

That a school faculty member - or anybody, really - could be arrested and possibly imprisoned over a book is just incredible to me. Perhaps the worldwide attention that this particular case is getting will cause the authorities in southern Bangladesh to reconsider their actions.

Winnipeg Free Press * January 6, 2012

Bangladesh Teacher Arrested After Banned Book Found in College Library

By The Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Police have arrested the head teacher at a college in southern Bangladesh after a book considered blasphemous by some Muslims was found in the school's library, an official said Wednesday.

Police officer Abdul Malek said S.M. Yunus Ali was arrested for possessing the novel "Lajja," or "Shame," written by exiled writer Taslima Nasrin.

Malek said Ali, head teacher at the K.C. Technical and Business Management College, could face up to three years in jail if he is found guilty of authorizing the book's inclusion in the library.

The Prothom Alo newspaper said Wednesday that Ali denied having the book and said he was the victim of a conspiracy.

Police corruption and misuse of police investigations by politicians are widespread in Bangladesh.

The novel was banned a year after its publication in 1993 and Nasrin was forced to flee Bangladesh to escape death threats from radical Muslims who considered it blasphemous for advocating secularism. She has been living in India and Europe since then.