So I totally took this list from this American Library Association site. I’ve read the ones that are bold. I have to wonder what had people’s panties in a wad … but yeah, some of them had some themes, ya know?
*1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
*2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
*3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
*4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
*5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
*6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
*7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
*8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
*9. 1984, by George Orwell
*10. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
*11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
*12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
*13. Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White
*14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
*15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
*16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
*17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
*18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
*19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
*20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
*21. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
*22. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne
*23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
*24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
*25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
*26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
*27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
*28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
*29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
*30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
*32. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
*33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
*34. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
*36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
*37. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
*38. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster
*40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
41. Schindler’s List, by Thomas Keneally
*42. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
*43. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce
*45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
*48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
*49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
*50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia, by Willa Cather
52. Howards End, by E.M. Forster
*53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz, by Toni Morrison
*57. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom!, by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
*61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor
62. Tender Is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando, by Virginia Woolf
*64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
*65. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe
*66. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
*67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
68. Light in August, by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James
*70. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
*72. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
*74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe
*77. In Our Time, by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
*80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise, by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather
*84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
*85. The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
*86. Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad
*87. The Bostonians, by Henry James
*88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
*89. Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather
*90. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
*91. This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
*92. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles
*94. Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
*97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread, by E.M. Forster
99. Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie
Anyway, celebrate our freedom of expression and the importance of reading — for the right reasons. Read a book. and then, do something even crazier — talk about it with someone.
I’m gonna do that tonight. In fact, maybe I’ll read something really far-reaching and thought-provoking. Like this little book.
I am giddy with joy. After all kinds of silly weeks and months through out the year, you know what I’m talking about, Smile Day, Hug a Panda Day, Drink your Favorite Beer Day (well, I won’t take issue with that one), and every other manner of silliness, Banned Books Week is something I can sink my teeth into. Or, maybe, curl up with. Forgive the prepositions.