What's all this, then?

Banned Books Week 2010 begins today! Sadly, I missed this afternoon's Read-Out event here in Chicago, but I guess actually cutting the procrastination and starting this project is adequate consolation.

Who am I and why am I doing this? My name's Kei (short for Katherine; long story), and I'm a 23-year-old lifelong bookworm who has recently returned to college as a would-be English major. This blog is something I've had brewing in the back of my mind for a while, and Nikki's Banned Books Week Challenge finally jogged the idea back to life. I figure the more time I can spend immersing myself in books and trying to think critically about them, the better. In addition, I'm passionate about the ideals of free speech and open access to information. I feel very fortunate to have had exposure to a wide range of ideas from a young age, which is why I find the focus on challenging YA literature especially troubling. Books that cause controversy also inherently present plenty to analyze and ramble about, which is important for a blog of this nature. (I will also admit to something of a libertine bent, but I think it'd be wrong to suggest that this is more than tangentially related to my interest in banned books, as so many are only "transgressive" by extremely narrow and subjective standards.)

While the bulk of my focus will obviously be on books that have been challenged or banned, I'll probably also post about other books that could be considered "controversial" or of interest. Also, a number of these books will be rereads for me, but I think it will be beneficial for me to have some extra perspective and to compare my different impressions over time.

Caveat lector: despite the formal tone of this introduction, I can't promise that this blog will be a shining paragon of highbrow literary analysis. There will be swears, non sequiturs, oddball pop-culture references, and a general sense of irreverence. The New Yorker this ain't.

So here it begins. I'll be starting with one of my favorite books of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; that post will be up sometime this week.