Burning or Banning?

Well, I prefer neither. Welcome to the official Banned Books Week, hosted by the American Library Association.

I have been thinking a lot about banned books and censorship (I guess this proves we have terribly stimulating dinner conversations). As a librarian, I can definitely see that book banning can damage our American way of life. And, as a conservative reader myself, I can see why some people may wish to ban some books. I have very conflicted feelings about it, though I would never try to ban or censor materials in a library. But, in my personal reading, I am very selective. While librarians will usually get their feathers very ruffled about censorship (as well they should be), they almost unanimously indicate that censorship of a child's reading is the responsibility of the parents. I wish more parents would be aware of this responsibility.

There are numerous lists of banned books available on the internet. Some of those books I would never ever consider picking up for myself, let alone my impressionable children (or, dare I say it, anyone else's impressionable children)! But, there are also many good books found on these lists, some of them favorites of mine. If we want to keep the good, we must put up with the bad (though we don't have to read it :).

So, in the spirit of celebrating our freedom to read, I encourage you to pick up a book from one of these lists (or at least notice one you've read) and think about how blessed we are to live in a country that allows fantastic literature and not-so-fantastic literature to be published. Please leave a comment if you plan to enjoy a banned book this week. I will be writing a series of posts this week about some banned books I loved.