You have to kill me... I am an open book.

The sad thing is that this post's lyrics are from one of the songs on my current playlist.

Ima little ambivalent about Kirk's challenge. On the one hand, Ima big follower of the culture of books. I grew up inna household like this. "They will breathe with gills that make the sounds of fluttering pages."

And Ima no stranger to banned books. I was readin Henry Miller before I was in high school. Which kinda freaked out my high school librarian.

Which is why she recruited me to go through stacks of donated paperbacks and cull out the ones that might cause trouble. These mostly came in two categories. Tom Robbins, and christian horror. Cuz apparently some people can't write a christian horror novel without scenes of children being anally raped. (you might think I'm joking. I'm not.)

I've been hangin out with librarians all my life. My best friend in elementary school (we were both held back in handwriting class) was the daughter of the man who owned the town book store.

I met Kim, my movie partner, about the same time her mother noticed me. Kim's mom was the librarian at my undergraduate college. (People... I still have stories... really. I just need to get depressed enough to tell them)

One picture they put in my senior yearbook was of me in a chair, reading, with the caption "[Noobed] engrossed in yet another fascinating book."

That bein said... I really have little interest in the whole banned book controversy. Novels are no longer pertinent in the grand scheme of things. We've moved on to arguing about censoring tv, songs, video games, and talk radio. The fight over books are more outta habit. Of Kirk's whole list, there are maybe what, 10 that I would recommend...

Not to mention some of these are the most published books in human history... like the ban hammer seems to have crippled J. K. Rowling's career... The only reason I read The Handmaiden's Tale was because of the controversy, and I instantly regretted it.

(Side note... I once got into an serious argument with a good (extremely christian) friend over whether the Harry Potter series was suitable for children.)

Anyway... here's what I've read.

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (a truly great book)
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna (I didn't really... *read* this one)
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel (also pr0n)
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (a childhood favorite)
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (bleh)
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (good book, better movie)
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) (moar pr0n)
55. Cujo by Stephen King (I outgrew S. King at age 13.)
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (click here for moar fun)
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
77. Carrie by Stephen King
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

And next week I'll pick up

71. Native Son by Richard Wright

I always meant to read that one.

And instead of passing this along to 5 others... I will leave you with this message from Samuel Clemens... some books were meant to die.