Something interesting that I have noticed with the Banned Book list, is that through the past 5 to 10 years, at least one of the top 10 books that have been banned for inappropriate content have been turned into movies ( generally rated PG 13). Now in book form, The Hunger Games or Twilight for example, were banned or challenged because they were sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, and unsuitable for their age group. What bothers me about this is that same age group who are being banned from reading these books ( youth and teens) are one of the highest viewing demographics that made those movies so successful. The double standard of allowing students to be exposed to the same content through a different format really doesn't make a lot of logical sense. In fact, exposing them to the Hollywood version in a less educationally stimulating setting is arguably more harmful than in a structured classroom environment where they are tasked with , analyzing themes, structure, concepts, and other literary elements as to expand their own thought process.
The one book on that list that really stood out to me was " The Perks of Being a Wall Flower". I wont lie, their are some concepts and parts of this story that are a tad on the edge of risqué. But that desperation Charlie feels to fit in, that lingering ominous undertone that follows him up until the end of the book when he reaches his tipping point and the story arrives at its climax, that couldn't have been accomplished without the very real struggles he dealt with. Stephen Chbosky turned Charlie, Sam, really every character in that book into real relatable teenagers facing real relatable problems. Sex, drugs, fitting in, depression, all sorts of issues that we have culturally either watered down or deemed to inappropriate to discuss in an open forum. We assume kids cant handle it. We assume that they are either fragile, immature, or just simply not competent enough to try to understand these types of concepts and issues as very real world things. Honestly I wish I had read this book in high school, not because I have lived everything Charlie has. But because being able to see different types of people in different lights helps us to look at what separates us and move past it. In my opinion books like this should not be banned, for that's telling students something is wrong with it and allowing them to remain closed minded to foreign ideas. I think if a book like this one offers educational benefit, we should revaluate the way the book is taught and find ways to expose kids to all walks of life.
My personal bookshelf (outside of my text books) is a bit random. Some of my favorites would be The Ultimate Hitchhikers Series by Douglas Adams, Pop which is a biography on the life and work of Andy Warhol, and The Heretics Daughter by Kathleen Kent. I think these books are a small sample of who I am as a person and what my interests are. I have a strong passion for modern art which has inspired my pursuit of a potential advertising career and emphasis in graphic design. The Hitchhikers series shows my love for satire and humor of that same sarcastic theme. The Kent novel is a great story, and I think it symbolizes not only my love for history and well written stories, but also my respect for strong female characters. Most of these books came from used book stores, I rarely buy books new unless it is online because they are simply overpriced. I could see myself easily making the transition to Ebooks. Its so much cheaper and more efficient, the only big reason I have to hang onto physical hard copies of book would be my summer job. Working as a wild land fire fighter, I have a lot of down time in the wilderness where it isn't practical to have modern technology or capable of any kind of internet. I read more books this past summer than I think any given year of my life, simply because I didn't have the technology I was accustomed too. It actually felt really good.
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