Noted philosopher Albert Camus said, “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”

That perspective is important to remember this week, Banned Books Week. I fully support this event, and I read banned books!

Rather than stumble through my thoughts on free access to books and other materials, let me point you to a thoughtful letter from a librarian, via Janiece, who explains it more eloquently than I ever could.

Of the top 100 books on the list of most frequently challenged books, below, I’ve read only 27, noted in bold – not a particularly noteworthy percentage.

1 Harry Potter J.K. Rowling
2 Alice series Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3 The Chocolate War Robert Cormier
4 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
5 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou
6 Scary Stories Alvin Schwartz
7 Fallen Angels Walter Dean Myers
8 It’s Perfectly Normal Robie Harris
9 And Tango Makes Three Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
10 Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey
11 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
12 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison
13 Forever Judy Blume
14 The Color Purple Alice Walker
15 The Perks of Being A Wallflower Stephen Chbosky
16 Killing Mr. Griffin Lois Duncan
17 Go Ask Alice Anonymous
18 King and King Linda de Haan
19 Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
20 Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson
21 The Giver Lois Lowry
22 We All Fall Down Robert Cormier
23 To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
24 Beloved Toni Morrison
25 The Face on the Milk Carton Caroline Cooney
26 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson
27 My Brother Sam Is Dead James Lincoln Collier
28 In the Night Kitchen Maurice Sendak
29 His Dark Materials series Philip Pullman
30 Gossip Girl series Cecily von Ziegesar
31 What My Mother Doesn’t Know Sonya Sones
32 Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging Louise Rennison
33 It’s So Amazing Robie Harris
34 Arming America Michael Bellasiles
35 Kaffir Boy Mark Mathabane
36 Blubber Judy Blume
37 Brave New World Aldous Huxley
38 Athletic Shorts Chris Crutcher
39 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya
40 Life is Funny E.R. Frank
41 Daughters of Eve Lois Duncan
42 Crazy Lady Jane Leslie Conly
43 The Great Gilly Hopkins Katherine Paterson
44 You Hear Me Betsy Franco
45 Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut
46 Whale Talk Chris Crutcher
47 The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby Dav Pilkey
48 The Facts Speak for Themselves Brock Cole
49 The Terrorist Caroline Cooney
50 Mick Harte Was Here Barbara Park
51 Summer of My German Soldier Bette Green
52 The Upstairs Room Johanna Reiss
53 When Dad Killed Mom Julius Lester
54 Blood and Chocolate Annette Curtis Klause
55 The Fighting Ground Avi
56 The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien
57 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred Taylor
58 Fat Kid Rules the World K.L. Going
59 The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things Carolyn Mackler
60 A Time To Kill John Grisham
61 Rainbow Boys Alex Sanchez
62 Olive’s Ocean Kevin Henkes
63 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey
64 A Day No Pigs Would Die Robert Newton Peck
65 Speak Laurie Halse Anderson
66 Always Running Luis Rodriguez
67 Black Boy Richard Wright
68 Julie of the Wolves Jean Craighead George
69 Deal With It! Esther Drill
70 Detour for Emmy Marilyn Reynolds
71 Draw Me A Star Eric Carle
72 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
73 Harris and Me Gary Paulsen
74 Junie B. Jones series Barbara Park
75 So Far From the Bamboo Grove Yoko Watkins
76 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison
77 Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes Chris Crutcher
78 What’s Happening to My Body Book Lynda Madaras
79 The Boy Who Lost His Face Louis Sachar
80 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
81 Anastasia Again! Lois Lowry
82 Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret Judy Blume
83 Bumps In the Night Harry Allard
84 Goosebumps series R.L. Stine
85 Shade’s Children Garth Nix
86 Cut Patricia McCormick
87 Grendel John Gardner
88 The House of Spirits Isabel Allende
89 I Saw Esau Iona Opte
90 Ironman Chris Crutcher
91 The Stupids series Harry Allard
92 Taming the Star Runner S.E. Hinton
93 Then Again, Maybe I Won’t Judy Blume
94 Tiger Eyes Judy Blume
95 Like Water for Chocolate Laura Esquivel
96 Nathan’s Run John Gilstrap
97 Pinkerton, Behave! Steven Kellog
98 Freaky Friday Mary Rodgers
99 Halloween ABC Eve Merriam
100 Heather Has Two Mommies Leslea Newman

Those of you who support ALA’s Banned Books Week — please join me in finding a few new books on this list that interest you, check them out from your public library, read them and talk about the ideas contained within.

Celebrate your freedom to read!

The youngest’s final book of the year in English is George Orwell’s 1984. The teacher behaved herself and drew no parallels to current events in the classroom, however, she did ask students to do so in their final paper.

It’s been many years since I read 1984 – and I read it at the same time as Animal Farm, which obviously differs as it’s about the animals. Duh! Still, the themes blur a bit.

I’m not nearly so well behaved as the teacher.

The core concept of 1984 is “doublethink”. Per Wikipedia, it’s “a form of trained, willful intellectual blindness to contradictions in a belief system.” Patriot Act anyone? Waterboarding is not torture? And Guantanamo Bay detainees are not subject to the constraints of the Geneva conventions?

The protagonist of the story, Winston Smith, works for the “Ministry of Truth”, which rewrites history to serve the contemporaneous party line. Oops, there were no weapons of mass destruction. And disbarred ex-president Clinton was the most wonderful leader since JFK.

The novel unwinds against a backdrop of a perpetual war – perhaps generated by the ruling party itself. Enough said.

I think I’ll re-read the book – it might provide more insight than newspaper reports of current events.

Many of us are book-lovers… shoot, that’s why we like Scalzi & his site!

What is the most striking book you’ve read in the last year or so, and why? And for extra bonus points, if you’re a writer wannabe like me, which writer’s style do you most admire?

I read so fast and so voraciously, it’s hard to remember very far back — but I think the most striking recent book I’ve read was Dust, by Elizabeth Bear. While I’d love to be able to write like Connie Willis, my style doesn’t really go that direction; I’d say that a better target for me is Kristine Smith.

A discussion in Janiece’s blog yesterday on meeting online friends brought to mind a classic SF novel.

The Naked Sun, by Isaac Asimov, postulates a world, Solaria, where face-to-face human contact has become a thing of the past. Residents live singly on huge estates, surrounded by technology and thousands of robots, and interact with their fellow humans only via telepresence.

The story is a murder mystery, solved by a human detective partnered with a humanoid robot. The taboo against face-to-face contact is so strong that one of the characters commits suicide rather than have a forced physical encounter with another human (who, ironically, is the humanoid robot).

It made me think – there are some science fiction visions of the future that are within the realm of possibility, given our environment today. (Isn’t that the nature of SF – creating plausible futures?) But some seem more probable, even start to seem eerily similar, as our culture changes and grows.

Gregariousness and technology adoption are both broad spectrums. Some folks spend all their time at busy brick-and-mortar workplaces, out and about with friends and family, involved in athletics, living in the real world. Others work at home in virtual offices, order their food & clothing online and have it delivered, work out at home, and for them, getting out is a rare occasion. It’s a generalization, but the folks at the out-and-about end of the spectrum tend to not spend a lot of time online; the folks at the other end spend a great deal of time online, and their computer screen becomes a window to their work, their daily practical logistics and their social life.

As a virtual office worker, I’ve become more reclusive, tending toward that latter end of the spectrum. I can see how it would be easy for a technologically oriented society to continue the trend toward isolation with a virtual interface to the world.

While I believe that online activities and friendships are valuable and rewarding, I really don’t want to become a geek-hermit. I need to get out of the house, do hands-on activities, and spend time with real-life friends and family more often.

I don’t think I want to visit Solaria, even as a tourist.

At the airport on Sunday, I picked up The Road, a noted novel by author Cormac McCarthy.

The Road is about a father and a son wandering through the bleak landscape of post-apocalyptic, nuclear winter America. They are headed for the coast, seeking warmer weather. The world is destroyed, the sun is gone, the few humans left are savage and desperate.

I have been interested in reading it since it came out, but have never picked it up because of its grim and gloomy subject matter. I also read one of his previous novels, All the Pretty Horses, and found it to be a pretty depressing book.

I was absolutely blown away by Cormac McCarthy’s writing. The writing is like a book length prose poem, beautiful, haunting and exquisitely sad. The man is a master of the English language, using the rhythm of unconventional grammar and beautiful words like an artist.

It’s not an action novel, nor even really a SF work. While there are fearful moments, and glimpses of absolutely horrific images, it’s not action-oriented nor suspenseful. It’s literature, an examination of abiding love in the face of unimaginable despair.

After I finished it, I felt a deep quiet, a need for time to reflect. McCarthy’s words will stay with me for a very long time.