Many New Years resolutions concern ways of improving the self- smoke less, exercise more; spend less, conserve more. These are worthy goals, but always subjective in nature and often fall to the wayside as circumstances and attitudes change while the year takes shape. As long-time readers of this column...
Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is one of the top ten most frequently challenged books of 2010- coming in at number 8- according to the American Library Association. The events portrayed in the non-fiction work take place between 1998 and 2000 and investigates...
In his own time, Shakespeare was seen as merely one among many talented playwrights and poets, but ever since the late 17th century he has been considered the supreme playwright; and to a lesser extent, poet of the English language. No other playwright has been performed on the world...
Science and Psychics- The Tech of Paranormal Research Most of the intellectual rhetoric thrown back and forth between skeptics and parapsychologists concerns the types of tools used during investigations; sometimes even those within the field of psychical research will argue among themselves for or against certain techniques and tools....
It’s October- a time for ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night. So what better way to get into the Halloween spirit than by showcasing the Children/Young Adult series “Goosebumps” by R.L. (Robert Lawrence) Stine. Before being knocked out of first place by the story...
I am humbled and honored by all of the positive reactions across the country and around the world for my Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge series about censorship. The comments and the discussions are fun and informative and nothing short of amazing. I’ve even ruffled a few...
Freedom of expression and thought is a fundamental human right, and is so important that it is the first amendment to the United States Constitution, yet there are those who would deny that right because some ideas that are expressed by others are contrary to their personal opinions. The...
Gary Paulsen has written over 200 books in his career. Most of those novels are junior-high-level stories that center on the wilderness and the importance of nature, and use common “coming of age” themes where a character in isolation must use the art of survival as a rite of...
Well wouldn’t you know it? Yet another of America’s legendary Founding Fathers has had their written work banned by the same citizenry that purports to idolize them. Benjamin Franklin’s life story was published in France under the title “Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin”(The Private Life of...
This morning, while doing a casual web search for banned books graphics, I came across my own logo for BBARK by surprise. I saw that it was posted by a library, so I interestingly followed the link and discovered that it was for a public library in Ontario, Canada...