"Fifty Shades of Grey" makes the list of most "challenged" books

[Jazzy]

Here's a list "Fifty Shades of Grey" was destined to make: The books most likely to be removed from school and library shelves.

On Monday, E L James' multimillion selling erotic trilogy placed No. 4 on the American Library Association's annual study of "challenged books" -- works subject to complaints from parents, educators and other members of the public. The objections: Offensive language, and, of course, graphic sexual content.

No. 1 was a not a story of the bedroom, but the bathroom, Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" books (Offensive language, unsuited for age group), followed by Sherman Alexie's prize-winning "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" (Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit), and Jay Asher's "Thirteen Reasons Why" (Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide). Also on the list, at No. 10, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison's "Beloved" (Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence).

The library association's Office for Intellectual Freedom defines a challenge as a "formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness."

Challenged books are a measure of trouble, but also a measure of popularity, whether as a cause or an effect. Some famous entries from recent years have dropped off the top 10, likely a sign of reduced attention overall: J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books, Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series, and Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" trilogy. Jones thinks some publishers "love it when their book is mentioned" because of the attention it receives, and Green agrees that getting on the list "means lots of people are reading your book."

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Reading this article just makes me want to run out and buy these books. Let me decide what I feel is inappropriate NOT some American Library Association!

What are your thoughts?

 

[Evil Eye]

Hmm, well, removing books altogether is a bit much. However, age ratings wouldn't be a bad thing entirely. Movies and games have them, why not books?

 

[The Dragon Master]

I would rather I decide what is inappropriate or not. Fifty Shades of Grey shouldn't be present in any school library, and anyway if your not sure what the books about, look it up. It's not hard to do.

 

[Sinon]

I would rather I decide what is inappropriate or not. Fifty Shades of Grey shouldn't be present in any school library, and anyway if your not sure what the books about, look it up. It's not hard to do.

I agree. I would be highly questioning if my child were to bring home a book like that from the school library. Adult literature has no place where a child can obtain it. That said, it wouldn't be a huge problem. Most children often watch movies, or play video-games that are rated a higher age than they are, so why should books differ from that?

However, here's a tidbit of information. Manga (Japanese comics) have age ratings in the US/UK. I assume purely because they can feature graphic depictions of violence or sex, but still, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use that sort of system for all literature.

 

[Katatonia]

Isn't Fifty Shades of Grey very poorly written anyway?

 

[The Dragon Master]

Isn't Fifty Shades of Grey very poorly written anyway?

Yeah, it's not the best written book that's out there.

 

[Sinon]

It's not the worst, either. I feel the same way about Fifty Shades as I do for the Twilight series. I've read some of them and while they're not great, they're not terrible either. I don't think they deserve the critical acclaim they get, but not do I think they deserve the gigantic hatred they get.

Personally, Danielle Steel is a far worse author >.> You can tell she doesn't put too much effort into her work; 3-4 books per year? It took Brent Weeks 2 years to release the second part of his Lightbringer series, yet she churns out hit after hit. Bleh.