American Mensa created a list of the top 10 banned books, polling its highly intelligent members. To join American Mensa, you must score in among the top two percent of on “an accepted standardized intelligence test.”
We’ve collected the complete list below–how many have you read? The members consulted a list of banned books created by Uprise Books Project founder Justin Stanley. Here’s more about the selection process:
Mensa members were asked to rank them in order of importance. Big Brother, a teenage girl and a compassionate lawyer made the list. Comments about the overall winner included references about the author himself (“Orwell’s insight into the malleability of human thought and behavior is a timeless incentive to personal awareness of the consequences of action and inaction”) to it’s impact on society (“1984 is one of those books that has become a cultural cornerstone”).
Top 10 Banned Books Picked by Mensa Members
1. 1984
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
4. On the Origin of Species
5. Catcher in the Rye
6. Of Mice and Men
7. The Lord of the Flies
8. The Lord of the Rings
9. Slaughterhouse-Five
10. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret