Banned Books Week: ‘Freedom to read’ anniversary

2 Oct 20122 comments

The 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, from September 29-October 6, will be celebrated in the US as groups - some on college campuses - read passages from the American Library Association’s top banned and challenged books.

Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania) will hold a literary flash mob read-out at 1pm on Monday, October 1, near the library.

Among the books on the list: To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Harry Potter, Beloved, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm and many others.

Many of them illustrate relationships between families (conventional or not) and among family or group members. Today, most seem rather tame and quite ordinary but, when first published, the topics, characters and story lines were considered controversial.

The ALA website indicates that the list includes many of the top 20th-century novels.

The first Banned Books Week was established in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Since then, more than 11,000 books have been challenged.

See the list of top banned and challenged books at the American Library Association.

Do you have a favorite "banned book"? Why did that book make such an impression on you? Share your comments below.

Posted by Schelly on October 2nd, 2012 - 15:53

Tagged as: ALA, American Library Assocation, Banned Books Week

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Raymond Friend
October 3rd, 2012 - 12:29
Do we live in a free country or not? Many of these books have been read countless number of times. Banning books because someone thinks they say something they don't like, just don't read that book. Banning books is not the answer in a "FREE" country.
Barbara Schmidt
October 8th, 2012 - 16:17
I agree with Raymond. If you don't like the book, don't read it. But banning (censoring) is not the way a free and democratic country is handling those things. Believe me, I am German.. we have been there and done that and everyone knows how it turned out. Most of those books are classics written in different times and now they are banned because you can read the "N-word" or the "F-Word" or they even talk about S-E-X? Why can a 13 year old watch people being killed in action movies and nobody cares but high school kids are not allowed to read "To Kill a mockingbird"? When I read some of the reasonings like "filthy, trashy novel" I dare to ask "says who"? Who decides what is filthy and trashy? And btw. talking about trashy.. start challenging all those scripted documentaries.. but I guess those are alright for kids. How sad is that??

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