Banned Books Week

*Some of the banned books I own

Banned Books Week is celebrated at the end of September, and this year will be September 22-28. In honor of this, I am going to have all the books I review on my blog this month be banned books. I hope this will highlight the variety of books that have been banned, and perhaps the absurdity of it.

Celebrated since the 1980's, this event is used to highlight censorship, and why we should have freedom to read different books. Typically books are banned in schools or libraries, although people have petitioned bookstores to ban them. The ALA(American Library Association) states that "when people are banning books they usually aren't trying to be malicious, they are trying to protect someone-- usually a child from the content of the book." My opinion is, unless you think your child cannot cope with the subject matter, have them read the book and discuss the content with them! I remember when I was a child, my parents would discuss with me the books I was reading. They would ask why I was reading the book, my opinion of it, and would have me analyze the content.

From my viewpoint, it is wrong for one person to censor what another is reading. I'm a staunch believer in personal liberties. You choose if you buy a book, or if you borrow a book from a library. You can choose not to buy or borrow the book. No one should be able to limit others' choices. Do not ban the book and prevent other people from reading it simply because it does not fit your world view.

I hope that the posts for this month will show the diversity of the books banned, and some of the reasons, when possible, why these books were banned. I appreciate when people tell me their opinion of a book, but not when they try to prevent me from reading it. Let me know what some of your favorite banned books are!

Some links for more reading about banned books:

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks

*The books in the picture are: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Brave New World, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, The Diary of Anne Frank, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, Gone With The Wind, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, The Hunger Games, In A Dark, Dark Room, Invisible Man, The Jungle, The Kite Runner, Lord of the Flies, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Upstairs Room, and Where The Wild Things Are.