Later this month is Banned Books Week. Just as last year, I plan to read at least one, hopefully more.

If you would like to participate, please do!!

No sign up required. Just take a look at these lists (scroll to the bottom) or the list I have posted here.

Read as many or as few as you’d like, then visit my Index Page and leave me a link to your review. The form is found at the bottom.

The index is permanent on my site and will always be available to those who are interested in reading other people’s opinions about books that have caused controversy.

Below is a list of the top 100 challenged books of the last decade.

Those I’ve read are in bold Maroon.
Those on my TBR are in bold Blue.

Top 100 banned/challenged books 2000-2009:

1. Harry Potter (series). J.K. Rowling
2. Alice series. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3. The Chocolate War. Robert Cormier
4. And Tango Makes Three. Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5. Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou
7. Scary Stories (series). Alvin Schwartz
8. His Dark Materials (series). Philip Pullman
9. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series). Myracle, Lauren
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  Stephen Chbosky
11. Fallen Angels. Walter Dean Meyers
12. It’s Perfectly Normal. Robie Harris
13. Captain Underpants (series). Dav Pilkey
14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain
15. The Bluest Eye. Toni Morrison
16. Forever. Judy Blume
17. The Color Purple. Alice Walker
18. Go Ask Alice. Anonymous
19. Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger
20. King and King. Linda de Haan
21. To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee
22. Gossip Girl (series). Cecily von Ziegesar
23. The Giver. Lois Lowry
24. In the Night Kitchen. Maurice Sendak
25. Killing Mr. Griffen. Lois Duncan
26. Beloved. Toni Morrison
27. My Brother Sam Is Dead. James Lincoln Collier
28. Bridge To Terabithia. Katherine Paterson
29. The Face on the Milk Carton. Caroline B. Cooney
30. We All Fall Down. Robert Cormier
31. What My Mother Doesn’t Know. Sonya Sones
32. Bless Me, Ultima. Rudolfo Anaya
33. Snow Falling on Cedars. David Guterson
34. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things. Carolyn Mackler
35. Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging. Louise Rennison
36. Brave New World. Aldous Huxley
37. It’s So Amazing. Robie Harris
38. Arming America. Michael Bellasiles
39. Kaffir Boy. Mark Mathabane
40. Life is Funny.  E.R. Frank
41. Whale Talk. Chris Crutcher
42. The Fighting Ground. Avi
43. Blubber. Judy Blume
44. Athletic Shorts. Chris Crutcher
45. Crazy Lady. Jane Leslie Conly
46. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
47. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard
48. Rainboy Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50. The Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini
51. Daughters of Eve. Lois Duncan
52. The Great Gilly Hopkins. Katherine Paterson
53. You Hear Me? Betsy Franco
54. The Facts Speak for Themselves. Brock Cole
55. Summer of My German Soldier. Bette Green
56. When Dad Killed Mom. Julius Lester
57. Blood and Chocolate. Annette Curtis Klause
58. Fat Kid Rules the World. K.L. Going
59. Olive’s Ocean. Kevin Henkes
60. Speak. Laurie Halse Anderson
61. Draw Me A Star,. Eric Carle
62. The Stupids (series). Harry Allard
63. The Terrorist. Caroline B. Cooney
64. Mick Harte Was Here. Barbara Park
65. The Things They Carried. Tim O’Brien
    I don’t have the book, but the short story it was named for.
66. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Mildred Taylor
67. A Time to Kill. John Grisham
68. Always Running. Luis Rodriguez
69. Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury
70. Harris and Me. Gary Paulsen
71. Junie B. Jones (series). Barbara Park
72. Song of Solomon. Toni Morrison
73. What’s Happening to My Body Book. Lynda Madaras
74. The Lovely Bones. Alice Sebold
75. Anastasia (series). Lois Lowry
76. A Prayer for Owen Meany.  John Irving
77. Crazy:  A Novel. Benjamin Lebert
78. The Joy of Gay Sex. Dr. Charles Silverstein
79. The Upstairs Room. Johanna Reiss
80. A Day No Pigs Would Die. Robert Newton Peck
81. Black Bo. Richard Wright
82. Deal With It! Esther Drill
83. Detour for Emmy. Marilyn Reynolds
84. So Far From the Bamboo Grove. Yoko Watkins
85. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Chris Crutcher
86. Cut. Patricia McCormick
87. Tiger Eyes. Judy Blume
88. The Handmaid’s Tale. Margaret Atwood
89. Friday Night Lights. H.G.Bissenger
90. A Wrinkle in Time. Madeline L’Engle
91. Julie of the Wolves. Jean Graighead George
92. The Boy Who Lost His Face. Louis Sachar
93. Bumps in the Night. Harry Allard
94. Goosebumps (series). R.L. Stine
95. Shade’s Children. Garth Nix
96. Grendel. John Gardner
97. The House of the Spirits. Isabel Allende
98. I Saw Esau. Iona Opte
99. Are You There, God?  It’s Me, Margaret. Judy Blume
100. America: A Novel. Frank, E.R.

How many have you read? How many of these are on your TBR?

Either way, read at least one this month and let me know. Enjoy your freedom to read!

Recently, while visiting one of my favorites, Zephyr Books, I was given a brochure that blew me away. In it are listed eight excellent reasons to shop at your local independent bookseller.

I’m listing a few of the great reasons to shop at an independent here and I’ve added some comments supporting why I think these aspects are so important. At least to me.

Many internet booksellers are not familiar with proper grading for condition. It’s common to see ex-library copies, marked and underlined copies, and copies in poor condition for sale. These are books that our local bookseller would reject for stock.

This happened to me once and only once. I never shopped at that online used bookstore again. One copy was so bad, I wouldn’t even consider donating it to my local Friends of the Library.

Don’t let this happen to you. Besides excellent web merchants such as Powells.com, I recommend checking out IndieBound.org as a place to find sellers in your area.

Many booksellers charge more than the true cost for shipping to make up for cheap prices. Most books are shipped via media mail; slow delivery and lost shipments are common. At your local bookstore you don’t pay for shipping, and you don’t wait for delivery.

The only time I’ve had to wait for a book is because they didn’t have it. They put me on a list to call when the book comes in. In the meantime, since the book was the first part of a trilogy, they set aside the other two books for me until that one comes in. No charge.

You can’t browse the books on the internet. At your local bookstore you find the books that you didn’t know about until you found them.

This last weekend, my husband and I stopped by after having lunch. He was looking for something in paticular, while I browsed. While doing so, I found several Artemis Fowl books and that trilogy I have on hold. (The Inkworld Series).

Talk about an impulse buyers dream. And an impulse buyer’s husband’s nightmare.

Finally the most important reason of all:

Your local bookseller is a member of your community and the money spent as your local bookstore supports the local economy.

On the back of the brochure, fourteen stores are listed. I thought I knew all the ones in my area. Apparently not. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to learn how ill-informed I was.

I will be creating a page dedicated to a number of these stores. In addition, I hope to be adding a widget on my sidebar for my favorite. It is my way of doing what I can to display my love and support.

So, do you know who your local indies are? Unsure? Check out IndieBound. If there is none nearby, I urge you to visit Powells.com.

Today is a good day to claim, celebrate, and support your independents.

The subject of reading translations came up today. It brought to mind a promise I made to obtain and read more of them.

I decided to go through my library and was surprised by the amount that I have and how varied. Below is a listing of the twenty-seven books I currently own. That’s only 7% of my library, but it isn’t as low as I thought it would be.

What a pleasant surprise!

The countries represented by the list below are: Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Germany, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey.

So, do you read translations? How much of your home library is made up of stories translated for your reading pleasure?

(Those with an [R] are one’s I’ve read)

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Portrait In Sepia by Isabel Allende
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende [R]
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano [R]
A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal [R]
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coehlo [R]
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel [R]
Hannah’s Daughters by Marianne Fredrickson
The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
Miramar by Naguib Mahfouz
The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon [R]