Starting 2025

Happy New Year and welcome to 2025. So I started my list of books to read this year. I believe I am up to six now that I definitely will be reading. The goal was set for Goodreads as well. I will be reading 100 books this year, like I always do. It's attainable and I think that with my current drive to read more then just my normal books, I should get to it in no time. I was also thinking that this year I am going to begin the banned book list again. When I was working at Barnes and Noble, I read through the current list of banned books at that time. I also read a few that have been on every list for years.

It amazes me the books that get put on banned lists. There are books that should never be on a list of banned books. I was looking at several lists on Goodreads and the first book on one list was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book should never be banned. Sadly it's banned in some places because of the racial slurs, the racism and some of the actions in the book. What gets me about when they ban books, it's for things like racism. It's like the people who are banning books wants to remove it from the world, but you can't remove racism just by banning books that deal with it. I think that the book is a great way to show students that everyone needs to given a fair lot in life, no matter what color they are.

Some of the best books I have ever read are on banned lists, I didn't read them just because they are on those lists. Some were required reading in school, some just interested me. 1984 and Animal Farm are banned for different reasons, but they shouldn't be. Each brings something to mix that gets people thinking. It's like the groups that are banning books don't want people to think anything other then what they are forcing them to think. I honestly can see some of the radical groups in our own country burning the books they don't want their children to read. They don't want them reading anything that would teach them to think outside of the box.

There are books on lists that I can see being put on that list for different things. The biggest book that I know why has been put on lists is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. This book was probably one of the most banned books when it was written. The story is about a man who falls in love with a child. We have to remember though, that our narrator is unreliable and you only get the story from his point of view. Yes, the story is darker and very much something that should never happen. I still think that as a book, it needs to be read. I think that it gives us a look at a darker side. I think that it's harder to read because of the content. If we don't read the things that make us uncomfortable, how will we know where our own lines are drawn in the sand?

So I think that 2025 will be my year of rediscovering books. I want to read things that I have been putting off and things that are almost across that line for me. I want to branch out more and read things that I thought were something I should never read. I want to see what others are seeing in the books they read. I especially want to read the books that the people who ban these books. I want to know what they enjoy reading. Well I say that, but I don't want to re-read the Bible. I have read it enough and I don't need to read it again. I know what it says, and I know what it is not saying.

So I am curious what is something that you, a reader, want to read this year that you have never gotten around to on your lists?