I hear that it's banned books week in the US. I hope everyone is keeping in the spirit of it by re-reading Fahrenheit 451. And with perfect timing, someone has tried to get "The Veldt" removed from their school's reading list. I've put some links in my blog.

Phil, I think it starts next week. At the bookstore where I work, we have been working on a display and collecting books on the "banned list". The display is rather large, around eight feet long and four feet high. It is basically different colored flames with our theme being, "is this what it's coming to?". I helped collect some of the books off the huge list, I think it was around two hundred books on the list. I could not beleive some that were on the list. Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are for showing part of his bottom and talking back to the parents. Many many others including, Steinbeck, Sallinger, Twain, Bradbury. There must be a list online that you can access. I hope everyone will take the opportunity to buy and read a banned book next week.

I think we have had some discussion here in the past regarding "banned" books.
Here's an article from last year I found interesting:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46476

Banned Books Week is Sept.30-Oct.6, 2012.
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

At The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, Prof. Jonathan R. Eller of The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, will be reading from Fahrenheit 451, on Tuesday, Oct. 2.
http://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/

Journalist Bill Moyers had a commentary (about 3 min., F451 is mentioned) at the Banned Books Week site posted with article by Nanette Perez.
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/node/301

Thanks, Linnl! I am doing a presentation at our local library this evening and have added the Moyers' clip to the topics!!

F451 is a centerpiece of the evening

Hope it went well!

I presented an academic lecture "Freedom on Fire: The Dystopian Future of Fahrenheit 451" at our central library (the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library in Florence, Alabama) on Sunday, Sept. 30, in observance of Banned Books Week. We had a terrific crowd and lots of stimulating discussion, plus we filled up three tables with displays of Fahrenheit material from my personal collection. Here's a photo my wife Anita made before the lecture. The lecture happened to fall on my 50th birthday. After losing both my mom and Ray as well as several other dear friends this year, discussing Ray and his best-known book proved to be a therapeutic way for me to commemorate the end of my first half-century.

Terry Pace
pillaroffire@bellsouth.net

"God, here and there, makes madness a calling." -- Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: William Lantry,

quote:

Originally posted by William Lantry:
We had a terrific crowd...

I'm just glad The Crowd showed up!

That's a wonderful ice cream suit you have on.

Terry, great photo! What a way to spend your special day...celebrating with the spirits of loved ones all around! Your display in the photo is right on.

The Banned Books presentation I was privileged to present had a wide-range of F451's from paperback '53 to those fine copies you had for review (all with Mr. B's name signed within). Ironically, I just recently organized my various RB files (as in your display) and continue to be amazed at the generosity of the man we so admired. Volumes of all sorts of "heart-warming stuff!"

(BTW: We visited with you in Glendale in '09 at his 89th. I am always pleased to hear of your activities and hope someday to be able to travel to enjoy one of your seminars personally.)
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This year's Banned Books Week runs from September 18 to September 24, 2022. Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign, promoted by the American Library Association and Amnesty International, that celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals.

The link below will take you to an article on the Biblio.com website (a website that, like the Advanced Book Exchange, sells used and rare books). The article lists 14 of the most banned books in America. The seventh book on the list? FAHRENHEIT 451, by Ray Bradbury:

https://www.biblio.com/blog/20...2b&mc_eid=3c5fa46fa1