If Reading = Breathing, then what is banning books?

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
~ Harper Lee

I lead a busy life, so busy that I wonder how I ever had time to work a full-time job. But I'm not busy with - you know - little busy things. And I'm not busy the way my ex-housemate's chihuahua Lola gets busy - her tiny little legs setting out to get somewhere  because there are things to sniff and bushes to pee on (we call that walk "Going to the bank"). Today when I should have been "busy" with work (editing, writing, research), I somehow (I really don't know how) landed on a web site that kept me busy for two solid hours. It's called Flashlight Worthy (see the widget to the right of this post). It's like crack for readers (I suppose - I only know about "crack" because I watch a lot of crime shows on Netflix).

Check it out. Tell me how long you stayed. Tell me your favorite lists and your favorite books, too. Here are some of my favorites that come to mind without my having to get out of the chair and go look at my shelves:

• Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt
• Truman Capote's short stories
• E.B. White's essays
• Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
• All of the Harry Potter books
• Flannery O'Connor's short stories

I could go on.  I'm hooked on this stuff.

Tomorrow is the first day of Banned Books Week. In celebration of reading (and not having to break the law in order to do so), here's a list of only 10 of my favorite banned books, no particular order, all beautifully written, all great literature:

1.  1984 - George Orwell
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
3. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
4. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
5. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
6. An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser
7. Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
8. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
9. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
10. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

 Where's your list?

Comments

[Ellen Orleans]

Very enticing, Verna. Good list for the coming winter months. I'm trudging through Swann's Way at the moment (Marcel Proust), but when I finish that, I'll be looking for something substancial. I've always wanted to read "As I Lay Dying." Perhaps that will be next!

Also, I just read Edward Gorey's The Unstrung Harp. This very brief book is a precursor to flash fiction and graphic novels. Very moving, especially for us writers.

[Heather]

Fun way to shop for new reads! I purchased Labor Day by Joyce Maynard, Mrs. Bridge by Connell & Salter, and Choosing My Religion by Stephen Dubner.

[Gail Storey]

Your post makes me want to make a list I make and re-make often for fun: "My Ideal Schedule." (!) It gives me hope that the next day won't take over with its own order of events, but maybe it's supposed to. ;-D

[Priscilla]

Danger, danger--more books to read! That widget is way too enticing. Favorite books: Harry Potter, of course. Plus any book I'm reading at the time. Books I go back to over and over: poetry--Mary Oliver, Rumi. (I even copyedited Rumi so got paid to read it--twice.)