We all know the evils of censorship: not ALLOWING people to read the books of their own choice.
But have you ever owned a book that was so BAD that YOU didn't want to be responsible - in the slightest way - for it to fall into other hands? A book that you'd rather burn or rip to shreds than donate to a charity shop... or even risk somebody else' pulling it out of your rubbish bin?
"If people WANT to buy it, I'm certainly not going to stop them. But I'm not going to FACILITATE their reading such a load of:
crappy plot;
evil values;
godawful writing style;
(other)."
Please give examples and reasons. Be as nasty as you wish.
I'll start off with a non-fiction book: "Duérmete, Niño" ["Go To Sleep Child"] by Eduard Estivill and Sylvia de Bejarby.
This is a cruel piece of shit that assures new parents that the best for their child is to cry themselves to sleep until they get used to the idea that nobody's going to come comfort them. ("You've got to keep firm. If you give in once and pick up your crying child, you set the whole learning process back by weeks.") They reassure parents that it's healthier for children to rock themselves back and forth rhythmically, banging their heads against the wall or the bars of the crib, than to be "spoiled" by being cuddled past their official bedtime. They KNOW that they couldn't convince parents to try this method for their own convenience, so they tell them that it's better FOR THE CHILD!
I first read about this book in Carlos González' EXCELLENT "Bésame Mucho: Cómo Criar Tus Hijos Con Amor" ["Kiss Me!: How to Raise Your Children with Love"], the BEST book on child-rearing that I've ever read. I later found the Estivill/de Bejarby book in a 2nd-hand shop. It was quite cheap, so I bought it... in order to burn it.
Reason for burning: a book of pure EVIL!
I hadn't heard about neo-Nazi computer games... the distribution of propaganda has become so much easier with the arrival of the internet, but I suppose it has also become easier to have civilized debates, too. (Just like this one).
We have our computer (and all other screen-things) in the living room so its easy to glance at the screen in passing. No-one's developed an interest in shooting people yet.
And if I can see what my children are looking at, they can also see what I'm looking up, too. So there's no one-sided invasion of privacy.
(If my family spot me reading a UKIP website, they have my permission to send me for a brain-scan. Sorry, that's getting away from the original question...)
I agree with Wilhelmina about enjoying reading what my children read; that's not restricted to taking the opportunity to discuss any values I happen to agree or disagree with, its also about giving us something interesting to share and talk about. Now that I think about it, that also gives me extra incentive to suggest more challenging books for them.
I survived (just barely) the phase when all child-number-one wanted to read was written by Daisy Meadows (not a person, but a sweat shop of writers with a corporate name, I think). I could happily have used them in a fuel crisis at the time, though there wasn't anything terribly wrong about them. Just tedious and repetitive. But I think its the repetition that helps early readers build their confidence, so I'm happy to leave them unburnt.
If I came into possession of a copy of The Lord Of The Rings (without having to pay more than 20c./20p. for it), I would definitely burn it.
"Je suis Wilhelmina!"
... Or possibly it was a UKIP supporter?