Banned Books

Answering questions at a recent Meet the Author, I was asked why I used an oil company as the bad guy instead of McDonalds in my novel The Accidental Activist? After all, McDonalds were the plaintiffs in the real court case in London during the 1990’s.

My answer, which tends to generate a laugh, was that I wouldn’t want to get sued for libel (McDonalds sued two individuals for a leaflet they were handing out outside a McDonalds in central London).

“A shame,” the man replied. “It would make the book a best seller.”

True. There is nothing like a book being banned or sued to help it become a bestseller. Am I right Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie? So here’s to banned books everywhere.

Know any good banned books? Please share in the comments.
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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at www.alonshalev.com