2026 B: Books and Bans

I have always been any avid reader and came from a family of book lovers. For many years it was assumed I would be a librarian. And for a period of time I studied in the field.  After children's books I devoured my mother's collection of Cherry Ames and Sue Barton books, then went through the normal childhood books of the time, including Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Next came my father’s genre, westerns. When our small rural county library expanded into a new modern building, additional worlds became available. In my mind I solved crimes with Leslie Charteris in The Saint books and had adventures with the tales of Alistair Maclean. (Sea Witch is still on the, bookshelf in my bedroom.) Eventually my interest shifted to worlds beyond our own with Anne McCaffrey, E.E. Doc smith and Katharine Kurtz. Eventually I created my own worlds of magic and dragons, romance and adventure. 

As for the bans? At my last signing event, the 3-d printer created dragons watching over the stacks of books were the attention grabbers. Then things became a little weird. You should understand that I don't write explicit material. Nothing that even remotely classified as "hot." However, several people acted like they were underage teens in an adult bookstore. They looked around to make sure no one was watching before they picked the book up. Then checked again before turning it over to read the blurb. This happened several times over the course of the day.

It has never happened before and I am not sure why it did that day But it made me feel like my books were about to be banned. Maybe because the stories dealt with magic and mages? There are some places where the Harry Potter books are banned from libraries and bookstores. Or that it dealt with dragons? Whatever the reason, it was unusual enough to make the day notable.

~till next time Helen

Of you want to see my previous postings for the challenge, go here. If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the participants.