The gorgeous Carine gave me the banned book mug that prompted this reading challenge. Printed on the mug are the titles of 23 books which have been banned from libraries and schools. My challenge is to read all 23 books listed, except those I’ve read in the last three years. Update from May 2017. New challenge is to read each book first published after 1900. some of the much older ones are enormous, dry, and not necessarily in English.
To see more banned and challenged books, check out the American Library Association’s list. If you want the mug, it’s here.
| Title | Author | Year Published | Reason Banned | Read |
| Ulysses | James Joyce | 1920 | Obscenity | |
| Nineteen Eighty-four | George Orwell | 1949 | Pro-communist and contains explicit sexual matter | Yes |
| The Origin of Species | Charles Darwin | 1859 | Evolution theory | |
| Catch-22 | Joseph Heller | 1961 | References to women as “whores” | |
| Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure Reason) | Immanual Kant | 1781 | opposed to the literal doctrines of the Lutheran Church | |
| And Tango Makes Three | Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson | 2005 | Pro-homosexuality | Yes |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | 1960 | use of racial epithets | Yes |
| Lady Chatterley’s Lover | DH Lawrence | 1928 | Obscenity | |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 1884 | Use of the word “nigger” and racial depiction | |
| Howl | Allen Ginsberg | 1956 | Many references to illicit drugs and sexual practices | |
| The Satanic Verses | Salman Rushdie | 1988 | Blasphemous references to the Islamic faith | |
| Tropic of Cancer | Henry Miller | 1934 | Pornographic | |
| Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert | 1856 | Obscenity | |
| Animal Farm | George Orwell | 1945 | Political Theories | Yes |
| Naked Lunch | William S. Burroughs | 1959 | Obscene language | |
| Du Contrat Social (The Social Contract) | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1762 | Criticized religion | |
| Doctor Zhivago | Boris Pasternak | 1957 | Independent minded stance on the October Revolution | |
| Uncle Tom’s Cabin | Harriet Beecher Stowe | 1852 | Condescending racist descriptions of the book’s black characters | |
| An Essay Concerning Human Understanding | John Locke | 1689 | Empirical Ideas | |
| Falun Gong | Li Hongzhi | 1992 | Cult | |
| Les Miserables | Victor Hugo | 1862 | Political Grounds (negative depiction of royalty) | |
| Lolita | Vladimir Nabokov | 1955 | Erotic | |
| Diaolog di Sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del mondo – (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems) | Galileo Galilei | 1632 | Grave suspicion of heresy |
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