So, it’s Banned Books Week. I’ll withhold — reluctantly — the Sarah Palin jokes.

According to the Banned Books Week site, more than 400 books were challenged in America in 2007. The top ten?

1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
2. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
3. Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
7. TTYL by Lauren Myracle
8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
9. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Banned Books Week is set aside at the end of each September as a time to reflect on the importance of the freedom to read.

The University of Memphis’ University Libraries will be getting in on the fun by staging readings from books that have been banned or challenged throughout history. The readings will be Monday (Sept. 29) through Friday (Oct. 3) from noon until 2 p.m. in the rotunda of the Ned. R. McWherter Library.

To volunteer as a reader, contact Tom Mendina at 678-4310 (e-mail tmendina at memphis.edu), or Kay Kroboth at 678-2209 (e-mail kroboth at memphis.edu).

A front page story by reporter Mike Lollar on April 25 prompted 86 comments on commercialappeal.com.
Mike wrote that Memphis is included in a big new coffee-table book, “Dream Destinations: The World’s 100 Greatest Places to Vacation,” published by LIFE Books.
Some other cities in the list are Montezuma, Mexico; Snowmass, Colorado; Giverny, France; Orlando, Florida; and Denali, Alaska.
Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau president Kevin Kane told Mike that he “wasn’t a bit surprised” by the designation, but apparently some other folks were.
For instance, a columnist in New Orleans took umbrage. Here’s the beginning of August Lind’s story which ran in the May 9 Times-Picayune:

The city that Life forgot; Austin and Memphis are Life Books ‘Dream Destinations,’ but New Orleans isn’t

Even though Louis Armstrong sang about New Orleans being “the land of the dreamy scenes” and “a Garden of Eden,” the Big Easy did not make the cut for “Dream Destinations: 100 of the World’s Best Vacations.”
But then, not many American cities did. Not Chicago. Not Boston. New York City did, which is totally understandable. But Memphis? Life Books’ editors, who searched out these widely varied destinations, must have had an Elvis “I’m All Shook Up” moment when they made the call on this one.

Do you think New Orleans is a better choice for a “dream destination” that Memphis? Or do you agree with the 86th person who commented on Lollar’s original story: “Memphis – my hometown. I don’t need LIFE books to tell me how I feel about it or to make me feel better about it! It’s my hometown and I love it!!!

I picked up “Kreature Comforts Low-Life Guide to Memphis” at the counter at Shangri-La Records, and started to walk out the door. Um, that’ll be $5, please….  It’s on newsprint, stapled, pages about a fourth the size of a standard newspaper page. I assumed it was free. But there it was on the cover: “Still only! 5.00 Cheap!”

If your time is worth money, and you’ve got visitors who want the behind-the-scenes goods on Memphis music, this is cash well spent, although you may still need to invest in a Handymap, because there are some obscure streets in this guide. There’s Aretha Franklin’s birthplace at 406 Lucy, for instance, and 4908 Eastshore, where Jerry Lee Lewis lived with his 13-year-old cousin Myra and her parents, before he married the girl and they moved down the street to 5042 Eastshore. There’s Alex Chilton’s parents’ one-time house at 145 Montgomery. There’s an empty spot at 811 Mosby where Furry Lewis once lived; the house burned down. Someone’s done the research for you, here; you’ve just got to locate the streets.

This is a guide with opinions. On Beale Street: “If good times for you means ‘Mustang Sally’ covers ad nauseam and drinking til 5 a.m. at theme bars (legally), this is your place.” The Low-Life Guide recommends the Blue Worm and the Executive Inn, both on Airways, and Wild Bill’s on Vollintine for fun accompanied by live music. And here’s a traveler’s advisory you won’t get just anywhere: “If you’re an aspiring musician, please don’t ’sit-in’ at Wild Bill’s or anywhere else for that matter. While you may think it fun, it is so only for you. Playing at certain juke joints, blues clubs or wherever may be your holy grail, but with the exception of very few musicians out there (yourself not included) the kindness of the locals should not be taken advantage of.”

There’s also a section on dining out (”Memphis is a great grub town!”), with some interesting suggestions like the Gay Hawk on Danny Thomas, Uncle Lou’s Fried Chicken on Millbranch, Melanie’s on North Watkins. 

To find copies, go to Shangri-La Records is at 1916 Madison. Or order online from Shangrilaprojects.com