I remember reading 1984 during my lunch breaks in high school and when I turned that final page, I was a changed person. It's unfathomable to me that some young adults today, in the same country, are purposely sheltered by their community and government from having that same experience.

I find it depressing that even among people who read it and really like it few make enough of the connection to go on and study propaganda techniques in real life (and by extension logical fallacies and how they are used against people).

1984 changed everything for me too.

Have you ever read We by Yevgeny Zamyatin? Talk about dystopia should come with a glass of prozac.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_%28novel%29

1984 was perhaps the best book I read while in high school.

The important thing about 1984 is that it's message is even more relevant today.

We need the next generation to read it so they remember not to go there.

I might have jumped the gun here; a lot of these books aren't really available from Google Books - they're mostly limited previews. (dang copyright!)

Good on them for maintaining the spotlight, I suppose?

Hyperbole.

"Banned" means that someone is stopping you from buying it. However, most of the instances of "book banning" in the US consist of a public entity not buying a given book.

Yes, there are instances of actual book banning, but they almost all involve pornography. Does Google Books/video carry those books/movies? For example, how much Max Hardcore does Google carry?

Banned in the USA.

Are all those out of copyright already?

More detail on why and where classic novels were banned here:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychall...

Hailing from the Emerald Isle, I find it embarrassing how many of these books were banned in Ireland.

Sorry for the stupid question, but could anybody tell me how to actually read a book on Google books? I never seem to find a link to the actual text of the book. (For example I just tried Catch-22 from the list of banned books).