Banned Books Week

The American Library Association's Banned Books Week has been dedicated to protecting our First Amendment rights and raising awareness of the rampant use of censorship as a political tool for decades now.  The issue truly is an important one for libraries, who take the brunt of the assault, but this is a cause in which both librarians and booksellers are in complete agreement.  The Freedom to Read is of paramount importance. 

The free-flow of ideas is crucial for the betterment of our society.  Ideas that antagonize, disgust, illuminate, highlight or reenforce are all part of the greater dialogue.  It makes no sense to only read ideas with which we agree; how then do we grow?  Sure, there are books out there, books on our shelves, that are abhorrent and volatile.  So it goes, to quote the oft-banned Vonnegut. 

What it comes down to, most often, is morality:  One person, or group of people, wish to impose their morality on the masses.  The hubris is appalling.  What makes the morality of one group more just and fitting than the morality of another? 

A librarian from Douglas County recently had a patron ask him to remove the book above, Uncle Bobby's Wedding, from the shelves.  Here is his incredibly thoughtful, gentle and just response.  Please read it. 

Here at Maria's, we do get requests to remove books.  Not many, but every now and then someone will disagree with a book and think that we should make it less visible, and therefore less available, to our other customers.  These can be difficult conversations, of course.  One of the more common books lately that people have disagreed over is Jay Asher's beautiful and very difficult-to-read young adult book, Thirteen Reasons Why (a book that every high school student should read).  In it, a high school age girl has committed suicide.  A few weeks later one of her classmates receives some audio tapes explaining that since they're listening to these tapes, they are one of the thirteen reasons why she decided to commit suicide.  It's obviously a difficult subject, but I think there are plenty of kids out there who may be in trouble and may NEED someone to talk to.  If a kid sees the world refusing to talk about these very real emotions, they may be less likely to talk to someone about them, with potentially disastrous consequences.  The book explores the ways in which the things we do may have consequences that we never dreamed were possible.  

Here's a video trailer for the book.