Lo and Behold, today is National Coffee Day!! I had no idea such a thing existed. In case you didn’t know, I love coffee. Shocker, right? (For you tea drinkers out there, don’t be hatin’ I also drink tea and love it too.) But coffee…it’s not just a drink anymore. It’s almost a friend. We meet every morning and start our day together. When things are really rough, I can call on coffee to hang out with me in the afternoon too. Aaahhh, coffee. Anyway, to celebrate National Coffee Day, I’ve posted a pic of one of my mugs. I got that one at World Market. I have several pretty cool ones. Maybe I’ll post more pics, if people are interested.

In any event, here are a couple of cool articles I found about National Coffee Day and then we’ll moved on to Banned Books, dun dun dun!!

Which profession drinks the most coffee? (writers and beatniks didn’t make the list! What the heck?)

A little about National Coffee Day including where to look for FREE COFFEE!!

And now for something completely different…

Banned Books.

This week is Banned Books Week 2010. And I’m sure when most of us think of banned books we think of kids not being able to read “Catcher in the Rye” because it was deemed too edgy for their tender young minds. Or kids not being able to get Harry Potter from their school library because of the occult themes. But on Amnesty International’s site, they are focusing more on people who have been imprisoned for things they’ve written. You can check it out here.

Being imprisoned for something you write, is pretty serious stuff. I’d also say that having somebody else ban your work from a store or a library is pretty serious stuff and it makes me mad every time I hear it. As a mother, I get protecting our children from dangerous things or not exposing them to something you feel will influence them in a bad way, but that’s my job as a parent. I don’t feel that it’s somebody else’s job. If I don’t think my child should read a certain book, I’ll make sure she doesn’t see it. Simple as that. Yet every year we hear about a variety of books that people spend a whole slew of time and energy trying to get banned from libraries and shops. I mentioned two above, but click here for a list and reasons why they were challenged. You’ll see that the first book on the list is Shel Silverstein’s “A Light in the Attic.” Yes…a book of silly poems for kids…and certain 33-year-olds with coffee addictions.

The reason it was challenged? Because a parent was afraid that the book would encourage children to break dishes so they could get out of washing them. So, rather than reading the poem to their impressionable young child and saying, “Now Susie, that wasn’t a very nice thing to do, was it?” This parent went so far as to try to get the book yanked from libraries and bookstores. Wow. Unbelievable.

But it happens. IMO…this whole banned book thing is a failure, but not on the part of the book. 99% of banned books are banned because a parent or a group of them are afraid of it influencing children. The solution? Stop wasting time trying to ban books and spend more time reading books to and with your kids. I guarantee, that’s special time that you’ll never forget and that will make a much better impression on your child than the fact that you banned a book from a library or store. If you don’t want your kid to read a certain book, then be involved enough in their life to explain why, but don’t ruin it for others who might enjoy the books.

Unless it’s my book. Because let’s face it, banned books tend to sell a lot of copies because of all the controversy. So when my book comes out, ban it till the cows come home, I’d love the publicity.

So what do you think about banned books? Good idea? Waste of time? Any banned books that you agree should be banned? Any books you’re surprised don’t make the lists?