Top 20 Most Banned or Challenged Classic Books

In honor of Banned Book Week.

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
 

 * American Library Association.

Top 100

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

Salinger, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Rand, Woolf, Morrison

Reasons why:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned/index.cfm

Now I have my winter reading list.

Nice to have some soul in the White House

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MBFLrNZs-Q&feature=related

Is it Wrong?

Is it wrong to like my son, my friends and families children, but not anyone else's children as a general rule?

To be fair, the problem I have is mostly with the parents since many of them let their children behave like heathens in public without a thought to anyone else's enjoyment or the noise level of pollution that their children cause.

It seems that invariable when the parents are truly enjoying themselves, their children are running around faster than Road Runner and causing more damage than the Tazmanian Devil.

In a week when we are talking about accountability, I would like to add a bill in Congress to address parental responsibility for raising responsible and sensitive children.

If parents keep raising their children to be insenstive brats unaware of how their actions effect others, I think the trickle down effect of this is just as bad or perhaps the same issue that has lead us to the current economic  / greed unaccountability scandals and bailouts.  Can we investigat the Wall Street and CEO's in corporate America to see what their childhood lessons were??

When the winds die down. . .

. . .and we all take a breath welcoming a new group of leaders, you have to stop and pause a minute and feel a bit sorrowful, whether you are a Bush fan or not, for the hits that he took.

Whether or not you agree with his policies or decisions, in the end we must all remember that he is a man, husband, father and friend to many who hold him in high esteme. Those who REALLY know him and what he stands for should be the ones we listen to when wondering what kind of man he is- not the talking heads and media types who try to paint us a picture for ratings or to sell to the lowest common denominator in their tabloid rags.

Many pretend to know him, but in truth, even after all this time, we all know very little.

And now as Obama arrives and folks are loving on him, I take a step back and know that as is human nature, many will do their best to tear him down too.

I envy their strength to stand for something, to serve, and live out their lives on a national and world stage that is rarely very kind.

Who among us could live in that spotlight, and what would our choices, dogma and policies look like acted out on a large stage?

The Bush daughters wrote a letter to the Obama daughters to enjoy every minute and participate as much as they can, slide down banisters and just be kids, they also imparted some great wisdom:

 "And finally, although it's an honor and full of so many extraordinary opportunities, it isn't always easy being a member of the club you are about to join. Our dad, like yours, is a man of great integrity and love; a man who always put us first. We still see him now as we did when we were seven: as our loving daddy. Our Dad, who read to us nightly, taught us how to score tedious baseball games.

He is our father, not the sketch in a paper or part of a skit on TV. Many people will think they know him, but they have no idea how he felt the day you were born, the pride he felt on your first day of school, or how much you both love being his daughters.

So here is our most important piece of advice: remember who your dad really is."