There is a great bumper sticker quote: "Everything I need to know I learned in banned books". That holds pretty true for me. There are a lot of things I learned about teen & adult life, geography, culture, art, science, relationships, philosophy, history, from BOOKS that no one ever told me about. When I was in high school I was geeky enough to read all 100 of the books on the college entrance reading list. It helped out taking those pesky entrance exams and made up for my less than impressive math skills. Of course, between the years I spent in high school and college I also managed to rack up a good pile of the banned books list, just for spite.
Not to list them all but some of the highlights were:
- The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
- Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck (although not a Steinbeck fan)
- The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
- Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous (that was an eye opener- the best anti-drug tactic i ever encountered, scared the pants off me.)
- The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
- To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
- Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
- Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
- Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (of course you must ban/burn the book that tells young people that banning/burning books is wrong)
SONG OF THE DAY: "Kids in America" - Kim Wilde
HIGHLIGHTED COVER: "Kids in America" - The Muffs (for the record: although I think this is a great cover, I HATE the video)
OTHER NOTABLE COVERS:
"Kids in America" - The Bouncing Souls
"Kids in America" - Bloodhound Gang
"Kids in America" - Fourth Grade Nothing
The Wynona Riders also cover this on their album J.D. Salinger.
(Lookout records)
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