The Sunday Salon: The Banned Books Week edition

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For today’s Sunday Salon, I’m diving into the second book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, in my Personal Banned Books Week Challenge: A book a day (click on link to see the other seven) in honor of Banned Books Week. The week began yesterday, Saturday, Sept. 27, and lasts through this coming Saturday, Oct. 4. The first book was Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, with a brief review to follow later today.

The reason I selected Harry Potter for a Sunday was in special honor of St. Joseph School in Wakefield, Mass. which removed the book from its library in 2007 because the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were inappropriate for a Catholic school. As a Catholic myself, I thought it was important to say, and this is not the erudite response for which you may have been hoping, but it’s what I came up with: “Hogwash!”

I thought I had read this first Harry Potter, but I’m now thinking I didn’t because I’m just blown away by it and I’m not even 50 pages into it. Even though, of course, I’ve seen many of the movies, including the first one, already I’m loving the book more than the movie, especially in Rowling’s portrayal of the Dursleys, of number four, Privet Drive — which is so much more nuanced, shall we say? I believe we shall, because it sounds like a highfalutin word (of course, sinking my use of the word nuanced with the use of the word highfalutin).

Other book bloggers, many of them also Sunday Saloners, whom I’ve noticed so far that have been highlighting Banned Books Week include :

• Rebecca @ The Book Lady’s Blog, who is celebrating with re-reads and reviews of favorite banned books and/or authors.
• Natasha @ Maw Books, who is reading and reviewing one challenged book a day.
• Heather J. @ Age 30+ A Lifetime in Books, who has three posts planned for the topic of banned books this week: her thoughts, a call for review of banned books and links to other posts on banned books.
• Michele @ A Reader’s Respite, who is holding a giveway in honor of Banned Books Week and it’s a good one. To see what books she is giving away, click the link.
• Jill @ The Magic Lasso, who is reading Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic in honor of the week.
• Laura @ Musings, who is celebrating by reading Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, which Laura writes was “Published in 1928, it was banned for 20 years due to its “obscenity”: the book deals openly with lesbian relationships and argues passionately that homosexuality is innate, not a choice.”
• Jenn @ Devourer of Books, who is posting a spotlight of a book that has been banned or challenged in the United States every day of Banned Books Week at 2 p.m. and who has been working on a new Banned Book Library on LibraryThing.
• Stephanie @ Stephanie’s Confession of a Book-a-holic, who encourages others to exercise their First Amendment rights and read a banned book.
• Rachel @ Old Musty Books, who shares her thoughts on book banning and book challenges, including a well-reasoned argument why you should read banned or challenged books.

If you’ve done a post about Banned Books Week and I’ve missed you, provide your link here or at my first post about Banned Books Weeks (see link at top). I’d like to see what you have planned too.

I’ll be back later today to give my thoughts on the Harry Potter book and a few links that a friend of mine from South Korea shared on the financial crisis with me– in case you’re interested in some heavy reading after this light fluff.

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Tags: Banned Books Week, Books, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling, The Sunday Salon