Of course not, you say. Horrors, no. Well, I bet you do if you actually look at the official American Library Association list of Banned and Challenged books.

So, the week of September 26 to October 3 we celebrate these books and the freedom to read. This is a great teachable moment, too, to make a point to kids of all ages that books are a luxury in many places in the world, as is reading whatever you choose. In fact, Kids off the Couch has a great post about this, too. We could get really political with this conversation and look at those countries but let's focus on ourselves and look at the top ten from the list.


1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

We're talking classics that are part of the conversations that educated people have. I've only read 6 of the 10 on the list but I know enough of the stories of the other 4 to hold my own in conversations even if I couldn't win Double Jeopardy. If you look further down the list you'll see beloved children's stories as well as some books that we'd all probably forget that we had to read in school.

But the point is that we had the freedom to choose to read those books. No one should choose for us what books we can and cannot read, unless we are a child and need that kind of guidance. Teaching children what is appropriate for them is teaching them a kind of freedom to choose. This isn't about whether the books is good or not either. That's a value judgment and something that will differ from person to person. This is about whether we each have the right to go to our library or bookstore and pick up the book and take it home and read it. Let's make sure that we don't ever take that freedom for granted. Personally, I think this is very Cool Idea!

Now how are you going to keep track of them? When I first started reading Agatha Christie mysteries in my teens I would check them off in the front of one of the books I actually owned. Otherwise, I found, I'd pick up the same book over and over because the premises sounded so similar on the back cover copy. Then when I started using the library extensively after college I had a journal that I tracked my reading by author. It was very well kept.

Then life got in the way and more than a decade and two toddlers later there's no way I'd be able to keep up with a reading journal. Of course someone on the internet has come up with a solution. It's called Goodreads. You can use it as much or as little as you want - which is my criteria for a Cool Idea!

Sign in and set up your library. Keep track of the books you've read or want to read. Give them ratings and reviews. Or not. Friend people and other authors. Or not. Set up online discussions with your book club. Or not. It's totally up to you how you use it and to what extent.

I have a couple of friends that keep track of everything they read and I do mean everything. They even track books they pick up from the library or buy at the bookstore. I have another friend who has an account for her book club and tracks their monthly readings going back the 15 years they've been together.

I'm kinda down the middle. I have some of my favorite books from my keeper shelf listed with a one or two line review. I also have listed all the books I've read for the book club I'm in. I definitely want credit for those. I don't do a very good job of updating it as I go along. I tends to be in fits and starts and you know what - I'm fine with that and no one is going to bust me for being a slacker. It's mine to use how I want.

So, go and explore. Friend Paulo Coelho or Susan Wittig Albert or Kelly Corrigan. Invite your friends and friend others. You might find books you'll enjoy are on other people's shelves. That's the good part. It's Goodreads and it's definitely a Cool Idea!