10 Must-Read Banned Books and Why They Matter Today
Here are ten classic novels that were banned and why they were removed from bookshelves.
Everything You Should Know About Banned Books
I still remember the thrill of checking 1984 off my TBR after learning it was once banned in schools. There’s something electric about reading a book someone tried to suppress. Over the years I’ve devoured dozens of challenged titles—but today I’m focusing on sharing classic literature that I love, why they were banned, and what they taught me.
Why Do Books Get Banned?
Banning usually comes down to authority, language, or ideas:
- Challenging Authority: Animal Farm exposed political oppression.
- Explicit Content: Lolita features controversial themes.
- Protecting Youth: The Color Purple and Speak (another frequently challenged title) discuss race, abuse, or sexuality.
A challenge is a formal objection; a ban means removal from circulation. Often, passionate groups push back—thankfully, many titles survive in our libraries.
For current challenges, see the American Library Association’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books.
My Top 10 Banned Books List
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Banned for “language and sexual references in the book.”
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted, “Gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.
Get a copy of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald from Amazon or Bookshop.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Banned for “pornographic,” and “glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination.”
Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a seminal novel of the 1960s. Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants.
You can get a copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey on Amazon or Bookshop.
Native Son by Richard Wright
Banned for “objectionable language” and “violence, sex, and profanity.”
Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright’s powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.
You can get a copy of Native Son by Richard Wright on Amazon or Bookshop.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Banned for “filthy and inappropriate.” language degrading to blacks, and is sexually explicit.”
Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life, he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world.
You can get a copy of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison on Amazon or Bookshop.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Banned for objection to the words “masses will revolt” and “Orwell was a communist.”
Animal Farm is a devastating satire of the Soviet Union by the man V. S. Pritchett called “the conscience of his generation.” A fable about an uprising of farm animals against their human masters, it illustrates how new tyranny replaces old in the wake of revolutions and power corrupts even the noblest of causes.
You can get a copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell on Amazon or Bookshop.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Banned for making promiscuous sex “look like fun” and “the book’s language and moral content.”
Originally published in 1932, presents Aldous Huxley’s vision of the future–of a world utterly transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class. This powerful work of speculative fiction sheds a blazing critical light on the present and is considered to be Huxley’s most enduring masterpiece.
You can get a copy of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley on Amazon.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Banned for “profanity and using God’s name in vain” and “its vulgar language.”
While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck’s work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing “Of Mice and Men” (1937), creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal; a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual’s existence meaningful.
You can get a copy of Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck on Amazon.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Banned for being obscene and “unsuitable for minors.”
Lolita tells the story of aging Hubert Humbert who has an obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet, Dolores Haze. It is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. All in all, “Lolita” is filled with awe and exhilaration, along with heartbreak and mordant wit.
You can get a copy of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov on Amazon.
1984 by George Orwell
Banned for being “pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter.”
1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell’s prophetic, nightmare vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. “1984” is still the great modern classic “negative Utopia” – a startling original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny this novel’s power, its hold on the imagination of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions – a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.
You can get a copy of 1984 by George Orwell on Amazon.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Banned for “sexual and social explicitness” and its “troubling ideas about race relations, man’s relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality.”
The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery, and Sofia and their experiences. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience, and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker’s epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey toward redemption and love.
You can get a copy of The Color Purple by Alice Walker on Amazon.
How You Can Explore Banned Books
- Join a Book Club: Reading these with friends enriches the conversation.
- Visit Local Libraries: Many host “Banned Books Week” events each October.
- Share Your Thoughts: Post reviews online with the hashtag #ReadBannedBooks to keep these titles visible.
The Value of Reading Challenged Titles
Reading banned books taught me to:
- Question Authority: Why was this removed? Who decided?
- Empathize: Walk in the shoes of marginalized characters.
- Defend Free Speech: Understand why open access to ideas matters.
Whether you’re new to the banned-books list or a seasoned explorer, these ten classics are a powerful start. Pick one, share it with a friend, and celebrate the freedom to read.
What’s your favorite banned book? Let me know in the comments below!
I have read quite a few of these! The Color Purple, Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, Song of Solomon, and Great Gatsby 🙂 Loved them all. Planning on reading the rest of them eventually.
That’s amazing and thanks for sharing Haley! There are a few I’ve read years ago and I’m planning a re-read soon. Most notably Of Mice and Men because I read that one way back in high school. Happy reading!