List by Tosca
"To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor's prohibited list."
- John Aikin
When it comes to freedom of choice in relation to books I have always been eternally grateful that I live in New Zealand. I grew up encouraged to read - through my parents and school - both classic and contemporary books that, in the US, were considered highly controversial. I didn't know they were controversial at the time. It certainly wasn't a concern to my parents or teachers. I know, though, that they didn't encourage me to read those books on a whim. I believe that they gave them to me for three reasons: they had enjoyed them, they thought I might enjoy them and they wanted to challenge my way of thinking. Often I wonder whether or not I've lived up to that ideal. Sometimes, I think yes. Other times, not so much. I've been rather smug in the idea that New Zealand bans very little. Or at least, what I thought was *very little* until I delved a little further. I had assumed that there weren't many titles that had ever been banned (oh, naivety, thy name is Tosca) so I was all kinds of astounded to learn differently. The Office of Film and Literature Classification has a Classified books/film list from 1963 to 9 July 2010 that made for most interesting reading. I downloaded the spreadsheet and browsed through all of those marked 'Banned' and then chose my top 5 from the ones that surprised me the most. So here you go.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
5 books I wouldn't have noticed if not for Good Reading magazine
List by Tosca
"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare."
- Kenko Yoshida
I spent the weekend and Monday sick with germs and I can say, hand on heart, that I make a terrible patient. I'm the sort of person who likes to be ill loudly and in full view of anyone else unlucky enough to be in the house with me at the time. I will park myself up on the sofa in pyjamas and with a blanket and generally wallow in my misery. An act which involves lots of sniffling and moaning about how hot my head is and how my throat hurts and that my eyes won't stop watering... The whole litany of ills. It's not much fun for anyone but I do like to milk the drama for all it's worth. One thing I've noticed, though, is that time stretches i-n-t-e-r-m-i-n-a-b-l-y long when you feel awful. And there's only so much daytime tv a person can take. Thankfully I had umpteen back issues of Good Reading to keep me sane. In a rare moment of pity I decided to hole up in my room to generally ooh and aah over each magazine and make notes about what I wanted to request. And here they are in this list of '5 books I wouldn't have noticed if not for Good Reading magazine.'
Query: Have you heard of Good Reading magazine? Do you request a lot of what they recommend? Did you know that you can access Good Reading via our Digital Library?
"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare."
- Kenko Yoshida
I spent the weekend and Monday sick with germs and I can say, hand on heart, that I make a terrible patient. I'm the sort of person who likes to be ill loudly and in full view of anyone else unlucky enough to be in the house with me at the time. I will park myself up on the sofa in pyjamas and with a blanket and generally wallow in my misery. An act which involves lots of sniffling and moaning about how hot my head is and how my throat hurts and that my eyes won't stop watering... The whole litany of ills. It's not much fun for anyone but I do like to milk the drama for all it's worth. One thing I've noticed, though, is that time stretches i-n-t-e-r-m-i-n-a-b-l-y long when you feel awful. And there's only so much daytime tv a person can take. Thankfully I had umpteen back issues of Good Reading to keep me sane. In a rare moment of pity I decided to hole up in my room to generally ooh and aah over each magazine and make notes about what I wanted to request. And here they are in this list of '5 books I wouldn't have noticed if not for Good Reading magazine.'
Query: Have you heard of Good Reading magazine? Do you request a lot of what they recommend? Did you know that you can access Good Reading via our Digital Library?
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