I counted up the banned book reviews I’ve published here and the current total is 69. Thought I’d get that milestone down in print before I finish ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (being challenged and banned in school districts around the country for bestiality, teabagger code for “having a homosexual character”) and push the total to 70.
I’m thinking about adding a banned book review index to the top of the blog, next to the ones for Air-Minded and Hash House Harrier posts. That way readers can see all the titles at once and click on the ones that interest them. Building indexes is a fair bit of work, though, and since my reviews are also on Goodreads, this link will serve the purpose for now.
Did I mention being born on October 31st? Why Hallowe’en isn’t a national holiday is beyond me. Speaking of holidays, I didn’t remember Monday was Indigenous Peoples Day until around one in the afternoon, and didn’t realize anyone was still mad about it replacing Columbus Day until around three, when I saw an angry post on TikTok. Columbus, at least in the circles I run with, turns out to be an easy historical figure to forget, genocidal slaver that he was.
Back to banned books for a moment, you really should read the first chapter of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” titled Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress. It’s the best argument for replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day I know of.
My review of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” (click here to read it) contains a brief history of the many attempts to ban it, which continue today, and will, I hope, give you an idea of why I’m so passionate about defending books from those who want to keep us from reading them.
Personal update: just back from my annual wellness check, the (mostly) no-touch physical you get after you’re 65 and on Medicare. My labs came back great, the meds I take to regulate my heartbeat and control AFIB are working as advertised, and I didn’t have to lie on the questionnaire — have I fallen in the past 6 months, do I shit myself, can I duplicate Trump’s personal best and repeat “person woman man camera TV” without drooling, etc. They stop recommending colonoscopies after 75, and since I have no family history there’s no need for another one of those. As you might guess, I’m fine with that. I need to schedule myself for a tetanus booster, and that’s it. Feeling pretty chipper for a guy who’s about to turn 76.
Columbus is easy enough to forget even if you discount his behavior.
He was over 500 years late to the dance!
But The Church was never big on recognizing the achievements of heathens and anyone challenging their dogma.
And countless “historical facts” are being disproven every day. It’s hard to keep up but kind of fun.
Well done on taking care of yourself. You need to stick around my friend, there are still heaps of zealots out there to antagonize!