Legible Wishes You a Very Happy (and budget-friendly) Banned Books Week
by Marci Rae Johnson
We know you’re a rebel, and we love it! So why not celebrate Banned Books Week with us by reading a free book on Legible? That’s right, FREE! Here are three often-banned books that you can read RIGHT NOW! These books are also often assigned as required reading in high school English classes, so yes, there will be a quiz.
Often criticized for using language that we consider very offensive today, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain remains simultaneously a very popular book and an often banned one. Our reviewer of the book states that “while ink is still spilled even today over whether the book is a racist or antiracist text, Twain makes it clear that Jim’s situation is one in which he is powerless over the machinations of the white people around him, and he draws clear parallels between Jim’s situation as a Black man in the South and Huck’s as a child of poverty and little education.” Read the full review here, and then get your free copy of the book on Legible.
Historically banned for its use of obscenity, I think many people instead would love to ban Ulysses because of how notoriously difficult it is to read! As a young English major, I got myself an old, hardback copy with the intention of trying it out at some point (since I loved other books by James Joyce), but my beagle, Higgins, got to the book before I did and “read” it with his teeth. This is his review: grr rrrrrr grrgrrrrrr grrrr. Take it from Higgins, it’s worth at least poking around in, even if you don’t want to read the whole thing. So hey, don’t spend any money on it; instead get your copy free from Legible!
The book of poems by Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, has also been criticized in the past for being “obscene” (also “shocking,” “too sensual,” and “trashy). So basically, the 19th century’s version of a trashy romance novel. But like many writers who were ahead of their time, Whitman was just misunderstood by his own era. We know now that free verse poetry isn’t scandalous (nor is poetry that’s a little on the sensual side), and the book is considered a classic today, as well as a very early example of the modern poetry movement. Get it for free on Legible!
