Morning Meanderings… When A Passion Catches FIRE

Good morning!  Happy Tuesday!  It is drizzly here in Minnesota this morning.  I am up early serving for IHN and now sitting down to write a quick post before I go to work. 

Yesterday I spoke in a nearby town to a group of 40 retired teachers about Banned Books.  I know right?  SO how did that happen?

A woman who is on the Friends Of The Library board “witnessed” my passion for banned books a few weeks ago and asked me if I would speak to this group.  I said yes and it sounded like a really good idea at the time…

until when I was driving their yesterday and thought, I wonder if some of these teachers will be teachers I had as a student?  AND…. I wondered if they would think that grown up Sheila is kind of a “rebel with a cause”talking about banned books....

 

When I arrived I was thrilled to see 4 of the teachers were teachers I once had.  And they remembered me which always amazes me because throughout my life time I probably had about 40 teachers and they have about 1,000 students throughout their career….  

AND talking about banned books was actually fun.  I brought some of my own, had pictures of the ones I did not own and went from the current champions of banned: Hunger Games, Harry Potter, SPEAK, to the surprises:  LORAX, The Dictionary, Lord Of The Rings, and of course the classics…  It was actually a lot of fun and there were questions afterwards – a great question was,

“Do you think an author may sometimes try to be a bit controversial to hit the banned books list, after all… ban a book the kids want to read it more…”

 

While I can not speak for the authors, I figured in most cases no…. but who knows really….

 

When I was done speaking I was given a gift, a banned book bracelet (SSSQQQUUUEEE!) I have always wanted one!  It really was a good time.

In other news, I noticed that The Twelve by Justin Cronin is now available for purchase.  Serious SSSQQQUUUEEEE worthy.  If you have not read The Passage (click for my review)- oh my… you MUST.  And when you are done, be sure and give The Twelve a try.  I have yet to read my copy of The Twelve and that is really insane since The Twelve was the one book I wanted most when I went to BEA in June and I have now had it on my shelf all these months. 

 

SO off to work.  I plan to be back later with a review.  Have an awesome day!!!!

Have you read The Passage or Justin Cronin?