Link-o-rama.
- Josh Harnett is apparently a fan of Party Girl.
- Cute Overload loves Frank Herbert. And also llamas.
- "Free" book scheme in Shanghai not working out so well. Possible solution: Remove the popular books.
- Citizens Against Pornography challenges (sort of) John Green's Looking for Alaska (and many others) in St. Louis libraries. The woman who originally placed the complaint (or contacted CAP, at any rate -- it doesn't sound as if any official challenge has been filed) said "she hadn't seen books aimed at teens with "erotic" passages at the county's Daniel Boone Library before a visit last year". Somehow I doubt that the library suddenly bought a bunch of books that deal with sex last year -- it's much more likely that the patron only just got introduced to YA books. Regardless, if they're taking issue with the scene in Looking for Alaska that I think they're taking issue with, it's the least erotic thing I've read in my whole life. Sex does not always equal sexy.
- Has anyone read this Disney/Jon Scieszka Alice in Wonderland book? (Thanks, Jody!)
- One of the bazillion articles about the Sarah Palin/library stuff.
- Yoga banned from Brisbane library due to issues revolving around hygiene. Or something.
- Poem pulled from the GCSE syllabus due to references to "knife crime" and goldfish murder:
A spokeswoman for AQA confirmed there had been three complaints, two referring to knife crime and a third about the description of a goldfish being flushed down the toilet.
I love that the article actually includes the poem in question. Excellent work, Guardian. Something similar happened when I was in high school -- the poem Richard Corey was included on the MEAs and people flipped out about the suicide reference. I actually don't remember how it was resolved.