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Banned Books published by Google

Lens Hood Man writes "Marking the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week, Google is inviting users to celebrate their freedom to read by making Banned Books available to all. From the Google Blog: "...you can use Google Book Search to explore some of the best novels of the 20th century which have been challenged or banned." Those books challenged this year include 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Lolita'."

24 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Just previews? by Utopia · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems to just previews not the whole books.

    1. Re:Just previews? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The write-up is missing some context. For more info on what's being banned and why, see here and here.

    2. Re:Just previews? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      It looked like many of the books were in limited preview (such as 1984)

      Read 1984 in its entirety here.

  2. A bit misleading by jagilbertvt · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Google is inviting users to celebrate their freedom to read by making Banned Books available to all."

    Google has not made these books available to read online, it just gives you the ability to find a library that has the book.

  3. Re:I don't see how they are banned books... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
  4. Lolita? by rduke15 · · Score: 1, Informative

    Has Lolita really been banned? In the US?

    I thought there was something in the US constitution about "freedom of speech". Is it still possible to ban a book? And a book which happens to be one of the best books by one of the best authors of the 20th century...

    What about the beautiful Kubrick film with Peter Sellers?

    1. Re:Lolita? by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 3, Informative
      Fortunately I think that crap has died out,
      This link http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlink s/100mostfrequently.htm is the list of the top 100 banned/challenged books 1990 - 2000. That's only six years ago, and if you think the US has got more liberal in the last six years...
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  5. A Couple Good Resources for Finding Banned Books by SlashdotOgre · · Score: 5, Informative
    When I was in college I picked up 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature [1] from my college bookstore. It does a great job of categorizing the books based on why/where they were banned, sumarizing the criticism, etc. Also another good list [2] is published by the American Library Association; it's supposedly the most challenged books from 1990-2000.

    [1] http://www.amazon.com/100-Banned-Books-Censorship- Literature/dp/0816040591
    [2] http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlink s/100mostfrequently.htm

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    Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
  6. Re:these are banned? by kalirion · · Score: 2, Informative

    Headline is misleading. It's "Banned and/or challenged" books, and I have a feeling that most of them have been merely challenged. A parent complaining to the school board about a book seems to be enough to put it in this list. And the ones where were actually "Banned" have merely been banned by one school district or another or some such nonesense. And then the ban was usually overturned. I don't think any of these books are currently banned by the U.S. Government.

  7. Re:I don't see how they are banned books... by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't see how these are banned books... they might even choose at a community level not to stock your book at the library, that doesn't mean that your book has been banned.

    If the government at any level forbids a library from carrying a book, it has been banned. In addition to that, books have been banned for ownership in certain localities.

    Heck most libraries don't carry everything anyway, I can't go get Hustler and Playboy at my Library. At my local library I can't find copies of the Jane's Reference books, or many other books.

    The difference is, is it the choice of the library or of an external influence? When some of the most popular and requested books, like the Harry Potter books, are not carried by the library because the city council has passed a law preventing the library from carrying them, then they are effectively being censored. This is a common occurrence and something everyone should be aware of.

    There are good books on that list, but you don't need to hype them by saying that they have been banned or censored by "the man." You should take the books as what they are.

    The point is, they have been banned and burned and what is being celebrated is victory over that. The fact that anyone can go online and find a way to get these books is worth celebrating.

  8. Re:Not all banned/challenged books are meaningful by Hyram+Graff · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Where's Waldo?" was challenged because of one part in the beach scene where a kid is sticking an ice cream cone on the back of a young lady causing her to lift her topless chest off the ground enough to see breasts. (It should be noted that her top is on the towel under her.)

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  9. Google Cut and Paste! by bigattichouse · · Score: 2, Informative

    Google Cut and Paste for the LOSE! The correct entry: Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin "Baldwin... has really unusual substantive powers but conventional ingenuity in form...[a] beautiful, furious first novel." - The New York Times Books about Go Tell it on the Mountain followed later by the incorrect entry: The Call of the Wild James Baldwin "Baldwin... has really unusual substantive powers but conventional ingenuity in form...[a] beautiful, furious first novel." - The New York Times Books about The Call of the Wild

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  10. Re:What about in China? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I wonder if the Bible would make the list. The Vatican banned it a few centuries back. Some hot and steamy stuff in it, for sure ;)

  11. Re:I don't see how they are banned books... by lostboy2 · · Score: 2, Informative
    From the American Library Association:
    What's the Difference between a Challenge and a Banning?
    A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. The positive message of Banned Books Week: Free People Read Freely is that due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.

    How is the List of Most Challenged Books Tabulated?
    The American Library Association (ALA) collects information from two sources: newspapers and reports submitted by individuals, some of whom use the Challenge Database Form. All challenges are compiled into a database. Reports of challenges culled from newspapers across the country are compiled in the bimonthly Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom (published by the ALA, $40 per year); those reports are then compiled in the Banned Books Week Resource Guide. Challenges reported to the ALA by individuals are kept confidential. In these cases, ALA will release only the title of the book being challenged, the state and the type of institution (school, public library). The name of the institution and its town will not be disclosed.
    So I think it just means that these books have been challenged or banned somewhere, not necessarily everywhere, and they're not necessarily challenged/banned any longer.
  12. Re:these are banned? by Exatron · · Score: 2, Informative

    Cute use of quotation marks to belittle others while completely missing the point. A book can be banned at any level of government. The point of these lists is to show just how stupid banning and challenging books really is.

    --
    "I think so, Brain, but 'instant karma' always gets so lumpy." - Pinky
    "Decepticons FOREVER!!!" - Ravage
  13. Re:Banning a book is ok! by funwithBSD · · Score: 2, Informative

    Can't believe I am responding to an ANON.

    But...

    Let me remind you that the Islamic-Fascist's go one better: attempt to kill the author.

    Salman Rushdie and the cartoonists that drew the Mohammed cartoons in Denmark have had to live in hiding, Theo van Gogh was silenced forever by them.

    Yes Virgina, evil exists and it wants to kill you.

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    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  14. Re:Very cool by nospam007 · · Score: 2, Informative

    ... except that Call of the Wild is by Jack London, not James Baldwin...
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    different book.

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Call+o f+the+Wild%22+%22James+Baldwin%22+-london&btnG=Sea rch

  15. Re:Not all banned/challenged books are meaningful by Aladrin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well check that out. I found it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/52819048@N00/16320528 0/ (Not Safe For Work! Cartoon pron! Sorta.)

    Thanks for the info!

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    "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
  16. Re:Where the hell is Mein Kampf? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 4, Informative

    From TFA :

    "To Kill a Mockingbird. Of Mice and Men. The Great Gatsby. 1984. It's hard to imagine a world without these extraordinary literary classics, but every year there are hundreds of attempts to remove great books from libraries and schools. In fact, according to the American Library Association, 42 of 100 books recognized by the Radcliffe Publishing Course as the best novels of the 20th century have been challenged or banned."

    Only those 42 books are online right now. Remember that the headlines are misleading (the thought that /.ers are actually more digging into the fact than average persons only frightens me, I mean, have you tried to only read only the headlines in a newspaper ?)

    Of course, as pointed by the parent, and pointed in other posts, a lot of significant works have been banned : Mein Kampf, Mark's Capital, the Bible, etc... but they are not in the top 100 NOVELS of the century.

    Plus, may I be the first to say, that putting online all books that have been banned at one time and at one place in human history would be a very huge work and probably would result in a digitalization of the entire litterature.

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    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  17. Re:Banned Books and Rock Stars by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's a lot like Rock stars. They do a lot of publicity stunts and live a lifestyle that seems garish and offensive to the social conservatives of their time, but looking back in hindsight, most of the hype is just plain silly. Biting off the head of a bat? Ozzie, your domestic home life is much scarier than that; so is the fact that we find it entertaining to televise it.

    According to Ozzy, that incident was a mistake. Apparently some fool threw a real bat on the stage and Ozzy bit the head off thinking it was a rubber toy. He ended up having to get tested for rabies.

    http://www.rollingstone.com/Mythozzy

  18. Re:Homework assignment by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Informative

    Similarly, explain the difference between formal and implicit polymorphism in C++.

    HINT: both involve overloading of terms.


    Answer: Both break if you use non-pointer types when adding items to STL lists :(

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  19. Re:Interesting use of the word banned. by lahvak · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are right that most of the books on the list were banned or challenged in the US at some point of time. What's strange is that sometimes they list things like "banned in Ireland", and for one book they even have "banned in Yugoslavia". That confuses me, because if they start adding books that were banned in former communist countries, they will end up with a huge list.

    I guess the list has only books that were banned somewhere in US, but for some of them they also list some other countries where they were banned. The result is quite a mess.

    I also find it rather ironic that 1984 was banned in some US town for being pro-communist, while it was banned in almost all communist countries for being anti-communist.

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  20. Re:1984 Edgy? by Jerf · · Score: 2, Informative
    Place it in context. Cold War, McCarthyism ... get the connection.
    True enough, but it's worth pointing out on this forum that 1984 was a warning against socialism, not McCarthyism. Ingsoc is "English Socialism".

    (It's also worth pointing out that while McCarthy may have been overzealous, he was largely right, as declassified KGB records have shown; there were Communist operatives everywhere doing what damage they could, much of which we're still sufferring from. Research it.)
  21. Re:"Islamo-Fascists" by psykocrime · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just read here, here and here.

    I've also addressed this issue before.

    I can't go so far as to claim that the United States has become totally Fascist (yet), but I stand by my claim that the neo-con ideology is
    moving us in the direction of fascism. I'll even go so far as to say that "Neo-Con" is just a euphemism for "Fascist."

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