the buzz log

Whether on book shelves or online, classic literature—and the characters who make them classics—exhibit remarkable stamina.

The presidential campaign briefly revived the topic of challenging literary characters' rights to be available to all seekers. The timing couldn't have been better for the 27th annual Banned Books Week (Sept. 27-Oct. 4). As one Publisher's Weekly editor put it, even though a political controversy turned out to be exaggerated, it stirred enough passion to show that "books matter."

Well-intentioned advocates still feel that certain topics should be hidden away from impressionable minds. Such challenges—as they are called—often don't result in outright bans, mostly thanks to stalwart librarians defending the honor of intellectual freedom.

A reported 546 challenges in 2006 (the most recent number available from the American Library Association) is higher than the previous year (405). The neutral news is, the average number of challenges since 1990 happens to be 546, so 2006 has been about par.

A tome's popularity—sometimes buoyed by being made into a movie, however critically dismissed—doesn't prevent challenges, and sometimes encourages them. Witness these two rankings of the same list: the top challenged books last year, and their Web popularity during the past seven days:

Two years ago, Harry Potter led a Search ranking of all-time challenged/banned books. The boy wizard remains irresistable, even as he riles some readers. The ALA site lists challenged books organized by time period. Here's a combined list of these provocative books (as well as their broadcast versions), ranked by their Web popularity.