52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 38

This week's book is actually a "banned" book. You may have heard recent controversy over books that have been banned throughout the United States. I happened to visit the Hamilton County Public Library in downtown Chattanooga during Banned Books Week and they had a display devoted to banned books so I picked up The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner.

To be frank, I have a hard time believing that The Sound and The Fury is banned. I feel the same way about The Diary of Anne Frank. It makes me question who is trying to censor these books and why. 

I truly believe it is the responsibility of parents to decide what their children can or cannot read. I read The Diary of Anne Frank when I was 13 and it gave me my first glimpse of the atrocities of the holocaust. It did not adversely affect me as a person. 

As an adult, I get that The Sound and The Fury deals with some difficult content (if you have the energy to wade through the stream-of-conscious-type writing that makes up the first half of the book). I don't know that a child would comprehend what the book is about. Furthermore, you can flip on Prime Time television and see much worse on Law&Order SVU or any number of shows.

The Sound and The Fury was not my favorite book. It took a lot of energy to read and you have to fill in the gaps of what is going on. This is hardly a book worth banning. We live in a free country and people should be allowed to choose what they want to read.