Ban this, goofball.
A long time ago in a city not too far away, I was enrolled in this private/Christian school that came equipped with its own library. To help encourage healthy reading habits among the many pupils, students were required to head to the on-campus book depository monthly to select a title.
While I always took advantage of the opportunity, I hardly read the books I grabbed; mostly, they were lame and couldn't compete with whatever it was that I had in the hopper at home.
Yet there was this one time when I actually picked up something interesting: Ira Levin's "The Boys from Brazil." The now-out-of-print thriller seemed like a good one to check out.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of allowing a couple of somewhat older busybodies to learn of my discovery. They were mystified that such a book would be available to impressionable minds, and they took my find to the local librarian. And then there was none: my selection was taken before I could really crack the cover.
To say that I was disappointed doesn't even begin to cover it. But more to the point, I was intrigued; I simply had to get my hands on a copy of that now-forbidden book.
Before it was all over, I made some other selection at the library and later purchased my very own paperback of "The Boys from Brazil." I still have the book, it's still out of print and those two busybodies are still just that. In fact, one of them even went out of her way recently to mass-forward an email decrying the supposed God-hating aspects of Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" and its sequels. Rather than read the book(s) for themselves, some people would rather try to crap on the work because of what someone else has to say about it .... I guess I never have, and likely never will, understand that kind of logic, and I'm likely to forever foster than wicked side that wants to instantly read something that someone else wants to take out of my hands.
So . . . my special thanks goes out to the recently deceased Ira Levin for creeping us all out with the Hitler mythology and for select people from the past for adding to my "to-read" list time and again.
Oohh, I love it when someone trashes a book based on moral outrage, it always makes me want to read it even more. I am currently reading the Golden Compass and have enjoyed it so far. Yes, Pullman is an avowed atheist however this does not make him less of a writer. The series does raise questions as to the motives behind some organized religions but aren't we meant to question and not blindly follow? Any way, I hope you get around to reading it. And now I have to go look for "The Boys From Brazil"
Reply to this