It has finally arrived!

Welcome to 'A Year of Reading Dangerously!'

With the arrival of Banned Books Week 2009 on Sept. 26, my year of reading as many or all of the most banned and challenged books of 1990 to 1999 plus those most challenged in this current decade has begun.

I am so excited I could dance down Market Street in St. Louis. Probably not the wisest move, considering the heavy traffic and low tolerance of eccentricity to be found in modern St. Louis life. We in the Midwest's Brigadoon don't look kindly on new fads and bizarre outbursts. Makes us itch for our naps, torches and pitchforks.

But, I go off on a tangent. Forgive me, gentle reader.

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For those who might have missed my post introducing this project some weeks ago, I will re-write the guidelines.  

I want to be clear that I am not Julie Powell. I'm not on some personal quest to find meaning in my crappy job or realize my writerly ambitions that have lain dormant since I edited some literary magazine at Amherst. Not that I want to knock Ms. Powell or her accomplishments. 

I'm just not her. I will not be dressing up as my hero. Can't say that I have one. Yes, I'm still searching for some greater overall meaning to my time on this Earth, but I can't say I'm unhappy with how things are currently going in my personal meaning search. 

When in college, I was more likely to avoid the literary magazine crowd at my self-absorbed liberal arts college than I was to yearn to be amongst them. I had newspapers to get out, angst to go through and living arrangements to juggle. 

I'm a writer and a reporter and an all-around crank who somehow manages to live rather comfortably in my skin with my faithful if morose Bassett Hound, loving boyfriend and family and a Black Bear Hamster, Sigismund the Fat, in a lovely early 20th apartment overlooking the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

Just to make that clear.

Now the guidelines.

- Attempt to read and blog about as many of the American Library Association's "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: 1990-1999" as well as any included since 2009 that are not already on the list. These books include authors such as Maya Angelou, Mark Twain and Judy Blume.

-Borrow as many or all of the materials from my local library to see if any are not available. (So far, the St. Louis Public Library is doing pretty well. I've obtained the first ten books of the project without incident.)

-Link to and monitor stories of censored or challenged materials for the year

-Explore the history of library challenges and the attitudes surrounding them.

It's a tall order for someone who can't seem to keep a blog kicking. But I am determined, as Louisa Musgrove says in Jane Austen's Persuasion.

The official kick-off of this project will be Banned Books Week 2009, Sept. 26 to Oct. 3.

Now, some would say I'm already behind, as I did not post during the first two days of the week. You will excuse me for heeding the Open Salon powers that be and following their advice for posting big posts (redundant, I know) at the start of the week.

Later on today, expect my first reviews. There will be discussions of three books from the ALA list. 

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Books have been the most important constant in my life. I am not one of the many Americans who does not read a book in a year. I feel deprived if I have not picked up a book over the course of a day. 

My love affair began during a childhood of nightly readings that my parents faithfully executed, English majors that they were. My sister and I would snuggle into our big bed and my mother or father would read aloud from The Berenstein Bears or The Box Car Children or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 

We would not sleep without them. My parents read Snow White to me so many times that I could go into a bookstore at three years old, find the book by its cover, and "read" the story aloud, the witch falling "to her dimly roar."

By the time I reached grade school and the torment that only fat, frizzy-haired nerdy girls endure, books had become my only friends. Sucked into far-off, better worlds, I read walking to the lunch room, smuggled books into class after I'd finished reading the text books and I'd started picking up Newsweek.

It never occurred to me that I would not have access to books. In preparing for this project, a memory from my seventh grade history class floated to the forefront of my mind.

Our school library (not much to write home about, but okay by Catholic school standards) was a tiny oasis I adored visiting. The ancient books reaked of old book smell and covered subjects like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Edwards Jenner. I loved library time (Anyone rolling their eyes and going, 'Duh?')

The library at St. Sufferingus (a literary license by a blogger conscious of libel laws) was ruled over by a petty tyrant not uncommon to small schools. We'll call her Ms. Pepsi-cola (Hopefully I am not violating copyright laws with that one).

During this seventh grade historyclass of memory, my teacher sent a group of us down to the library to gather books for research. Mrs. Pepsi-cola wasn't around but we quietly scanned the shelves, pulling books for our topics. 

As I happily pulled books on ever obscurer topics (I think mine was for research on the Boston Massacre), Ms. Pepsi-cola walked in, flustered at the sight of these children invading her realm.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a shrill voice. 

I turned, baffled. Explained the project and our teacher's directions.

Her face became the color and shape of a ripe red beet.

"This room is off limits! Nobody is allowed to take out any books! You put those books back right now and don't come back in here!"

Nothing could have startled me more than if she'd decked me with a stereotypical ruler across the hands (For the record, sorry, Catholic schools don't do that anymore.)

For the remainder of my time at St. Sufferingus, no one was allowed to take books from that library. It sat, empty and forlorn, more often than not locked. No reason was given. The books gathered dust.

I raged in class about the unfairness of it and nothing was ever done.

It was the first time and only time I have ever been denied the contents of any library. To this day, I hope Ms. Pepsi-cola is cursed by the library gods.

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With this memory in mind, I come to the idea of Banned Books. As those who read in my last post,  banning books is by no means a new fad. Humanity has probably been put off by certain written words since the first scratchings in the dirt made sense.

What I hope to discover during the course of this year of reading is if I can understand the reasons why certain books become battlegrounds. 

I admit, I am likely to not see eye to eye with those that would have books taken from library shelves. 

But, I would rather try to understand it than continue to act like a cause-head and not see where the other side of the issue is coming from.

To that end, I have developed the "Raised Eyebrow" system of rating. That means, on a scale of zero or one (meaning not making my eyebrow go up) to ten (both are so far up into my hair line we'd have to mount a dog-sled expedition and start eating seal meat), I will try to rate the books I read on objectionable areas. 

For those who have read my previous posts on The Philharmonic Gets Dressed and Tintin au Congo, you are already familiar with the system.

During the course of the project I will also keep you up-to-date on any book controversies I hear or read about and on the perspective of those seeking to challenge and/or ban books as well as background on issues.

I will try, despite my previously stated bias, to be fair. As I'm not blogging in my official reporter capacity, I can be a bit subjective.

Indulge me or call me out, up to you.

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The complete list of what I will read can be found by clicking here. Additionally, I will include books from the last eight years that do not already fall on the ALA list for 1990 to 1999.

Some of the books I am familiar with. Some I read as a child. Some I admit to having no desire to read. Some I've never heard of. 

This is, afterall, an exercise in variety. 

The first reviews, published later today, will include the following:

1) Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz. This is a series. With the other series in the list, I will only read the first book. It would not be fair to the other books on the list if I read all of a series. If I did, I would never get to anything that way. If it seems like a cop-out, sorry 'bout that.

2) Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite

3) (in the same post as Daddy's Roommate) Heather Has Two Mommies by  Leslea Newman

(While I will try to adhere to the list's order, when it comes to picture or short books, reviews may include multiple books)

Coming later this week:  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (shudder) (Yes, I'm St. Louis born and bred. No, I really hate Mark Twain. Yes, I know I'm unnatural)

With that, happy reading and reviews will follow this evening!

Read dangerously!