8 Books That Were Banned For Insane Reasons

1. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Where's Waldo Burning
Universal Pictures

Yeah... seriously. A book that's only purpose is to educate people on the English language and its many and varied uses was banned from a school in California in 2010 because a parent complained that their child found the term “oral sex”.

Despite no dangerous narrative or explicit, raunchy scenes, a book that literally just compiles information was subsequently removed from the school following the complaint.

Apparently the Menifee, California Union School District decided to form a committee discussing the potential permanent ban of the dictionary in classrooms. The deafening silence on the issue since then is likely an indicator that something so ludicrous was quickly swept under the rug for fear of embarrassment. Still, it's insane the whole thing happened in the first place.

 
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Commonly found reading, sitting firmly in a seat at the cinema (bottle of water and a Freddo bar, please) or listening to the Mountain Goats.