# How many of the ALA's most frequently challenged books have you read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489 "2005-10-23T03:13:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/81 "2005-10-24T19:47:17Z")
Huh. 34, which is more than I was expecting. Although I didn’t read the entire Goosebumps series, I did read about 5 or 6 of them. It was one of the first series my son really got into when he was younger, so I read some to make sure they were appropriate. He ended reading the entire series and some other books by R.L. Stine. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/82 "2005-10-24T20:33:34Z")
1. ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/83 "2005-10-24T22:18:50Z")
I think about 20. I remember Judy Blume’s _Forever_ being about a girl losing her virginity. So there were sex scenes in it. ---
**Author:** ![Stinkum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Stinkum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinkum)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/84 "2005-10-25T00:48:51Z")
I counted 33. I haven’t read a lot of children’s literature (even as a child, I read grown-up books). Yeah for me. I am a twisted, corrupt person. But we knew that anyway. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/85 "2005-10-25T02:18:42Z")
25 1/2. I gave myself a split decision on a couple of the Judy Blume titles that sounded familiar (but I wasn’t sure of) and a partial for the Rice trilogy, which was repulsive. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/86 "2005-10-25T02:50:40Z")
25 Bridge to Terabithia is probably the most puzzling inclusion on the list to me. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/87 "2005-10-25T02:57:12Z")
Only 30, but that’s probably because I outgrew children’s literature very quickly. I’d be interested in reading quite a few of the adult books I’m missing so far. It seems like Toni Morrison is in second place behind Judy Blume. No surprise there; she doesn’t pull any punches. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/88 "2005-10-25T04:37:22Z")
31, most of them as a teenager, and several because they were required in school. All of them were good books, though. Don’t know why people don’t challenge the cruddy _stupid_ books we had to read, like _Death Be Not Proud_. I could get behind banning that book for the good of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/89 "2005-10-25T05:43:17Z")
I’ve read seven. Ten if you count _Sex_, _Where’s Waldo_, and _The Anarchists Cookbook_. (I don’t know why they’d ban _Sex_. Nothing could make actual sex seem less appealing than that stupid book.) I missed out on alot of the required kid’s and adolescent’s reading, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/90 "2005-10-25T06:41:32Z")
Wow. I gotta tell you, I clicked on it thinking I would have read many on the list. I thought maybe they’d be long novels written by authors I’ve never read anything by. So imagine my surprise when I counted 26 out of the 100 that I’ve read. Haven’t read this topic all the way through either, so forgive me if something I say has been said already… …but I can’t see why 56, 51, 32, or 1 would have been challenged. Well, maybe I can see why number 1 was, but what where they expecting from a book with that title? Happy stories with good endings? That’s like picking up a bible and then being offended by the religious overtones… ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/91 "2005-10-25T06:46:30Z")
> [@Green Bean](#): > > Come to think of it, where the heck is the V.C. Andrews? _Flowers in the Attic_? _My Sweet Audrina_? _Heaven_??? That was some sick shit, yo. Huh. I’m surprised Stephen King’s _IT_ didn’t make it, what with the underaged sex orgy in the sewers and all. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/92 "2005-10-25T06:56:25Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > 25 > > Bridge to Terabithia is probably the most puzzling inclusion on the list to me. Really? I found nothing puzzling about BtT. It’s an incredibly depressing and emotionally laden book. Profound, yes. Challenging, yes. But I can easily think of why people would have problems with it. although I wouldn’t be surprised if it was challenged for women acting like men ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/93 "2005-10-25T16:58:12Z")
1. In regard to the Judy Blume issue-I have no idea about why “Margaret” is on there but apparently “Forever” was one of the first books written where teenagers had pre-marital sex and didn’t die some sort of tragic death with back-alley abortions and fiery car crashes etc. etc… ---
**Author:** ![KAndre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@KAndre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KAndre)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/94 "2005-10-25T17:42:55Z")
Just 20, because I didn’t count Potter or Auel’s stuff because I only read one of each. What an odd list. ---
**Author:** ![Nightingale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@Nightingale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightingale)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/95 "2005-10-25T18:11:50Z")
15, and I may have read all or parts of 2 or 3 others. Many of them were required reading in school (_Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies)_ And I, too am boggled by why some of those books are on the list. What on earth is wrong with _A Wrinkle In Time_? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489/96 "2005-10-25T18:20:09Z")
Eleven. And most of those 11 were read under the watchful eye of the nuns as assignments during my conservative Catholic school upbringing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-the-alas-most-frequently-challenged-books-have-you-read/327489.md?page=4)