Banned Books Week, Sept. 25 – Oct. 2
Banned Books Week is one of my favorite library-related celebrations. I’ve probably said this a hundred times in this space, but one of the big reasons I became a librarian is to support intellectual freedom. Some people think it’s a appropriate to prevent others from reading materials they find objectionable. Perhaps they never think that maybe someone doesn’t like something they like to read.
I encourage people to look at the lists of banned and challenged books, like the top challenged books of 2003, the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-1999, and this list of selected controversial books (.pdf) the American Library Association hopes people will display publicly. Some people are surprised to learn something they’ve read is on one of these lists.
One year at work, I held a voluntary contest to see who had read the most banned or challenged books in the office. I gave the winner and loser prizes. Last year, I just quietly read some controversial books on my own. Maybe by next Saturday, I’ll come up with a plan of action for this year. There’s a nice hole in my schedule that week, so maybe I’ll do some more reading.