As librarians celebrate intellectual freedom during Banned Books Week, it is important that they also celebrate their right to boldly and unapologetically ban terrible books from their library's shelves. (Yes, I am talking about you, Harlequin Romance's Stories Set in the World of Nascar.)
Ask the readers: What books do you think should be banned from your library?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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21 comments:
I want to ban the "Left Behind" series!!!
I'd like to ban Freak in the Sheets by MadameK. Actually, since all copies but one are lost it sort of banned itself :)
Anything by Danielle Steel--just not worth the paper they're printed on!
Those unsolicited Scientology books that the Church of Scientology sends. They end up untouched at the library book sale.
Yes, everything by Danielle Steel. Also all books by Norman Vincent Peale.
The Twilight saga.
I work at a library in a small town in Mississippi. If I banned all the books about Nascar my circulation would drop to zero. If I had my choice...all the books with intentional misspellings in the title. The "Nauti" series drives me nuts.
I want to ban any books where the dog dies. As the mom of several rescue dogs, I'm tired of sad books where the dog is unloved, unwanted and ends up dead! Ugh!! :(
I wouldn't ban any book, ever. Even if they ARE stupid (I'm looking at you, Harlequin). Because even though I don't like them, obviously there is someone who does. Not only would I not like to take the pleasure out of reading for ANYone, I also think that book banning is a seriously slippery slope. It's better to just not even start. Sorry to be all downer...I can't even ban stupid books in jest! :)
I wouldn't ban a book. EVER. Not even true garbage (coughTwilightcough), or wierd, disturbing stuff (like Mein Kampf). I might, at one point, decide that a certain book doesn't support the mission of my library, but I wouldn't ban it. Just because I don't like the book doesn't mean I have the right to impose my tastes on anyone else.
Political screeds!
I'd ban all the urban lit. Period.
The Vixen Manual by Karrine Steffans. So pathetic!
Any book with more than 5 circs by Elizabeth Amber or in the "Sexy Beast" series. They've got to be covered in all sorts of unsavory genetic material by then.
Not really banned, since I hope no honest taxpayer dollars have been sent to the guy, but let's get donations of copies of all of Kevin Trudeau's books which our hopeful customers have purchased and had their hopes crushed after opening the covers, have a tidy bonfire, and roast some nice marshmallows.
I don't quite want to ban them, but there are a number of things I wish to catalog as fiction. Jenny McCarthy's lies about autism spring to mind.
We have an enormous collection of mills and boon... with it's own call number (MAB)
(National Library of Australia)
I don't want to BAN the books, so much as I want to use "suggestive selling" to convince people to check out different books. Like "Twilight"? Why not try ANYTHING ELSE instead? Like Danielle Steel? How about you stop reading the same book over and over?
Sorry, I'm bitter. Being a page for so long will do that to you.
Thong on Fire only because I suspect is has untold bodily fluids on every page. Ew, I just squicked myself out.
The Gossip Girl books. Every page is filled with teenagers having sex, doing drugs, and getting drunk. And they never seem to suffer for it...
Wonderful things to teach our children... only tweens read these in my library!
(I sound so old! and I'm in my 20s!)
And not BAN so much as seriously discourage.
Any book ghostwritten for a celebrity. Isn't Snookie hiring someone to impersonate her as literate?
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