I love seeing lists of books that Americans should have read by the end of college. I also love seeing the lists of books that are deemed the top 100 novels of all time or even better the top 100 banned books. In either case I wonder who made the selections and why.
In my search for those lists I found the Modern Library. They have a board list and a reader's list of the top 100 novels. I have worked my way through many of these lists as a source of what to pick up at the library if I can't think of the next book to read. I also look at the emails or facebook notes that travel around with lists of books and everyone indicates what they have read. There are books I haven't read on those lists and those become my next selection for the library.
The top 100 banned books list can be found here. This is the ALA's list and it indicates how many of the classics are banned which is thoroughly shocking. If we ban books even if they are ones we feel we disagree with or promote ideas that are shocking we purposefully limit our children's ability to make decisions.
Take a moment and compare these lists. The top 100 books to read and the top 100 banned books have many of the same books listed.
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