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holdouttrout ([personal profile] holdouttrout) wrote2008-03-10 08:31 am
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Dangerously Daring People: Read a book week!

I know what you're thinking. "Read a book? But I read books all the time!"

But it makes sense, I swear! For one thing, books are awesome. For another thing, people throughout history have believed that books are some of the most dangerously daring objects ever created by man. More dangerous than operating heavy machinery while on cold medicine!

Okay, so banned book week isn't until like, September, but the Young Reader's Choice Award nominees are quietly stalking library bookshelves near you. And if there's one thing about YRCA books, it's that some of them are regarded as very daring indeed.

Looking for Alaska, in the senior division, is a book about Miles "Pudge" Halter and his friends and experiences at a boarding school in Florida. It tackles some pretty hefty issues, and even has an (hilarious) almost-sex scene (on which grounds it was challenged by parents at Depew High School near Buffalo, New York for being "pornographic").

Or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in the intermediate division, which has controversy following it simply because it's Harry Potter. (It also has some pretty mature themes.)

Of course, there are also some plain good reads among the nominees--and I don't think you can go too wrong with any of them. Personally, I love reading good YA literature, possibly even more than reading good "adult" literature. (I mean the normal fiction sections, you gutter-minded people.)

What books have you read recently that challenged you? Doesn't have to be YA or challenged...just challenging.

[identity profile] spiletta42.livejournal.com 2008-03-10 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I got distracted and never did answer the question properly -- what I'm reading now is The Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis, which attempts to sort fact from fiction in exploring what's known of the ancient Celts. Aside from lengthy things I didn't wish to know about Roman politics, it's a good read thus far.
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[identity profile] holdouttrout.livejournal.com 2008-03-10 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
attempts to sort fact from fiction in exploring what's known of the ancient Celts.

I have gathered this is rather difficult--everyone has a mental image, and it's supposedly Very Very wrong.