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September, 2011

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Love-hate relationship.

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

My brother is reading Ender’s Game, one of my absolute favorite books since I was his age, and it makes my heart happy. However.
I frequently struggle with the fact that the author of one of my favorite books is a known homo-hater. I know that if we restricted ourselves to art created by people who wouldn’t discriminate against us, we would miss out on a lot of incredible works of literature, graphic art, and music, not to mention that all artists’/authors’ opinions are not so widely known. So I compromise in the only way I know how – I purchase his books second-hand when possible, or if I really want one when it’s just published, I buy it from an indie bookseller (as I do with all new books). What are your thoughts on the artist vs the art?

Banned Books Week

Monday, September 26th, 2011

So here we are again in this oh-so-familiar place… I’ve been aching to get back to my blog, but avoiding it like that friend you really should have called months ago, and the longer you wait, the more awkward it gets, and eventually you just have to pick up the damned phone, or log into the damned site. So here I am. Not gonna apologize to myself or anyone else, cuz holy crap has life been topsy-turvy, and hey, I’m still here.

So. Banned books. Last year, I read Slaughterhouse-Five and To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time each and enjoyed both immensely; this year so far, I’ve finished Fahrenheit 451 and am currently working on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on tap. I chose these by scanning my personal library for titles I’d never read that appear on the ALA Top 100 Banned/Challenged books: 2000 – 2009 list. I have no intention of reading every book on the list, but there are several I’ve been meaning to get to for years, and this is as good a prompt as any!

While I can certainly see why Fahrenheit 451 is beloved by many, I wasn’t crazy about Bradbury’s prose; it felt erratic and was difficult for me to follow. I did, however, take away a few gems, this being one:

“The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.”

Pretty brilliantly summed up, in my opinion.

In other news, my brother and I are doing well; school is back in session, new routines are falling into place, and we’re enjoying a lovely late summer. Hope you out there in book blogger land are doing splendidly, as well!