The following books have something in common. They have all been banned at one time or another.

- How many of them have you read?

(Me? = 67)

- Would it benefit you to read all of them?

(I still have work to do to make the list mine. I have tried on several of these that don't make my list only to fail)

#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#4 The Koran
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
#11 Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
#16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne
#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
#23 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce
#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
#29 Candide by Voltaire
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
#31 Analects by Confucius
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal
#36 Capital by Karl Marx
#37 Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
#45 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys
#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
#52 Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker
#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
#60 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
#69 The Talmud
#70 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
#75 A Separate Peace by John Knowles
#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck
#78 Popol Vuh
#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
#80 Satyricon by Petronius
#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright
#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle
#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner
#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
#98 Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
#102 Émile by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#103 Nana by Émile Zola
#104 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
#108 Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
#109 Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

...but here goes:

#1 The Bible...yes
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain...yes
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes...yes
#4 The Koran...no
#5 Arabian Nights...yes
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain...yes
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift...yes
#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer...yes
#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne...yes
#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman...no
#11 Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli...no
#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe...yes
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank...no
#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert...no
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens...yes
#16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo...yes
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker...yes
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin...no
#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding...yes
#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne...no
#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck...yes
#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon...no
#23 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy...yes
#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin...no
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce...yes
#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio...no
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell...yes
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell...no
#29 Candide by Voltaire...no
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee...yes
#31 Analects by Confucius...no
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce...yes
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck...yes
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway...yes
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal...no
#36 Capital by Karl Marx...no
#37 Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire...no
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...yes
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence...yes
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley...yes
#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser...no
#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell...no
#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair...no
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque...no
#45 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx...no
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding...yes
#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys...yes
#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway...yes
#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy...no
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury...yes
#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak...yes
#52 Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant...yes
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey...yes
#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus...no
#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller...yes
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X...no
#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker...no
#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger...yes
#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke...no
#60 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison...no
#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe...yes
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn...yes
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck...yes
#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison...yes
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou...yes
#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau...no
#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais...no
#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes...no
#69 The Talmud...no
#70 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau...no
#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson...no
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence...yes
#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser...no
#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler...no
#75 A Separate Peace by John Knowles...yes
#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath...yes
#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck...no
#78 Popol Vuh...no
#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith...no
#80 Satyricon by Petronius...yes
#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl...yes
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov...yes
#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright...no
#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu...no
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut...yes
#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George...no
#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle...no
#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder...no
#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin...no
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse...yes
#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene...no
#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner...no
#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner...no
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin...yes
#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig...no
#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...no
#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud...no
#98 Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood...yes
#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown...yes
#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess...yes
#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines...no
#102 Émile by Jean Jacques Rousseau...no
#103 Nana by Émile Zola...yes
#104 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier...no
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin...no
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn...yes
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein...yes
#108 Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck...no
#109 Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark...no
#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes...yes

Note: I'm trying to be scrupulously honest here, so only answered yes to works I have read in entirety.

If I included works of which I've read part or most, they would include all but a few of this list.

So: 54 in entirety; 90ish in entirety or part.

#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

3-for-3 in the first inning. Not a bad start. It's downhill from here, tho.

#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#11 Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#98 Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

So 19 in all. Whoopee for me.

Generally speaking that's a list of some of the most memorable and most quirky stuff I've read over the decades.

A Separate Peace deserves it.

I hate John Knowles.

Me too.

{they both laugh, then sigh}

[3F06]

Either read them or saw the movie.

Have read in their entirety:
(Bold: ones in my library)

#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
#11 Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
#16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
#23 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys
#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker
#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
#60 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck
#78 Popol Vuh
#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

You'll probably remain the champ, but then again, you made the list. Here goes. Only books read completely.

#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
#29 Candide by Voltaire
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#103 Nana by Émile Zola

That's a respectable 35 books, but I must admit that several were assigned reading in high school, and I perhaps didn't really appreciate them as much as I might today. The secret of benefiting from a great book is to read it at the proper time, but nobody's really figured out the formula for this.

Note the lack of tedious philosophy books in my list. Missing from your list are some serious literature, such as the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and you've included some fluff that really doesn't belong in a serious list. Granted, maybe they weren't banned.

Was wondering why you say that Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories were banned? Didn't they appear in serial format before they were published in books? Everybody loves a good mystery. Must have been the allusions to Holmes' Cocaine use--if some of them were indeed banned.

Most interesting would be your listing the reasons why these books were banned. That would tell us something about the society(ies) which banned them.

by the Soviet Union in 1929 for occultism.

If I were a better person I would do the entire list. Nazis banned quite a few. Soviets even more. Some in China, others, including a few shameful bans (considering we turn our heads to porn), go to the USA.

I have yet to see the Talmud on anyone's list. I guess we have no "good Jews or Rabis here this week, or they chose not to ring in.

I have always found it interesting to see what people read.

follows. As I recount, I get 74 +- There were at least 10 more that I have had in my hands, some more than once, but was unable to finish.

I will pick up a cereal box and read the side panel if that helps explain.

It is interesting to see what people read.

#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#4 The Koran (just finished in English, which I have been told is not the Koran - still I claim credit)
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne


#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
#16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker

#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck


#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce

#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

#32 Dubliners by James Joyce
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal


#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley


#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding

#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker
#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

#60 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou


#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes


#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

#75 A Separate Peace by John Knowles
#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck



#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright

#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut



#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner
#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig



#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines


#104 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
#108 Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck

#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes