Saturday, September 25, 2010

Ban my books, please

Banning books is serious business. For the record, I am against it. Against censorship. Let people read what they want to read. Having said that, I've noticed that banned books get an awful lot of attention in the media.Banners don't seem to get that the quickest way to make someone want to check out a book (especially a kid!) is to say you can't read it.

So I'm thinking...won't one of y'all try to ban my books? There's not any violence in them, but, for some reason, book banners don't seem to care about that. But I use the "n-word" in Children of the Waters and the "f word" in Orange Mint and Honey. Both my novels have, gasp, sex. Ooh, ooh and Children of the Waters has a character who doesn't believe in God!

As a matter of fact, there are lots of worthy books out there some nutcake could do a great favor by trying to encourage the world to run out and read ban.

For example, I'm reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin right now. This is a book with multiple gods and gods who get it on with humans. Seriously bannable! (And for the non-crazy seriously readable.) The really cool thing is the second book in the trilogy is coming in November, so trying to ban the first book will probably really help sales of the second book!

And we'd be in such good company. Folks are always trying to ban The Color Purple and To Kill a Mockingbird, as just two examples.

In all seriousness, today is the beginning of Banned Books Week. Celebrate your right to read by buying or borrowing from the library a book that has been challenged or banned. If someone wants to keep you from reading it, it's almost guaranteed to be worth reading.

14 comments:

MsALWalker said...

I love the idea of your blog. for you!

MsALWalker said...

That should have been "APPLAUSE" for you.

Anonymous said...

Never truer words have been spoken. Your work would be placed in the canon of great American literature in no time if it were banned.

Pamala Knight said...

Great post and I totally agree. If you could get your books banned, it would be the making of them. Sad, but true.

Anonymous said...

I considered a post similar to this but couldn't find more than anecdotal evidence that banning books increases sales. If you look at the list of banned books, they're extremely popular books that have excellent sales before they're banned. Placing them on the ALA list guarantees continued sales!

I know there are schools that with numerous reasons have adult urban lit in their collects, but no one ever, ever wants them withdrawn. So, just how political is this book banning thing? It's looking almost as political as the way publishers censor what gets published.

!

ivanova said...

It does seem like you have to be famous before you get banned. What's that about?

I recently read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and I agree 100%!

Denny S. Bryce said...

Great post! I found this blog recently, and have been inspired, entertained and educated by each post. Thank you - and yeah, will ban upon request:)

Crystal Wilkinson said...

You are so right. Maybe we should start a campaign to ban all the books that we love.

Trina said...

Thanks for the reminder! I would try to get your books banned, if I really thought anyone would listen to me on this matter!

Carleen Brice said...

You know I'm not sure banning books leads to sales. I'm just joshing around to make the point that I think banning books is stupid, and to call attention to Banned Books Week.

Tyhitia Green said...

LOL. It's amazing what banners don't get. It makes sales explode.

Shauna Roberts said...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is at the top of my to-read pile. Now I really want to speed through the book I'm currently reading to get to it.

Carleen Brice said...

Shauna, Let me know what you think of it! Thanks for stopping by!

Cheryl said...

Orange Mint and Honey sounds great. I marked that to read on Goodreads. I love your button "I love black authors". I copied it and put it on my blog!