Banned Books

Over in the States it's Banned Books Week. I am completely anti-censorship. I think that books should be accessible to anyone. I was lucky, my parents never policed my reading, and I went to a fairly liberal church school, where nothing was banned. Here are a few other bloggers and interesting links about this.

I had no idea Francesca Lia Block's books were ever banned

 The Story Siren has an interesting article on the subject

Author Tamora Pierce also provides her opinion on the list

The Guardian has a list of the top 10 banned books (and there are a few surprises, certainly for me)

So what have you read from any of these lists of banned books?

"There where one burns books, one in the end burns men" -Heinrich Heine

In the "To Be Read" Pile

* The Fry Chronicles - Stephen Fry

* One Day - David Nicholls

* The Snowman - Jo Nesbo

* A Room Swept White - Sophie Hannah

* The Bolter - Frances Osbourne

* A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

* Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada

* Candy Girl - Diablo Cody

* Paint it Black - Janet Fitch

* Peyton Place - Grace Metalious

* The Glass Room - Simon Mawer

* The Last Concubine - Lesley Downer

* Kraken - China Mieville

* The Remedy - Michelle Lovric

A good mix there, should keep me going for a while. Anyone read any of these? Thoughts ?

Stories - Edited by Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio

This anthology of short stories by acclaimed authors is not something to be read in one sitting, but rather something to be dipped in and out of. I've only read a few of the stories so far, and been delighted by all. As is the tradition in short story telling, each is a self-contained tale of the Other. From the twisted revenge in Neil Gaiman's The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains, to the curious twin bond in Joyce Carol Oates' Fossil-Figures, and the vampirism of Walter Mosley's Juvenal Nyx, and the meta-fictive twists in Michael Swanwick's Goblin Lake, to name but a few, each story explores an aspect of the weird, sometimes frightening Other that preoccupies humanity.
Of what I've read so far, it's all rather brilliant. But then asking world-renowned, prize winning, authors to write a short story was bound to turn up some corkers. It's currently a hardback, so it might be out of some readers price range, but I highly recommend borrowing a copy from your local library, or just waiting for it to be a paperback.