Banned Books Week, an annual celebration of the freedom to read since 1982, is observed the last week of September. Each year, librarians, booksellers, teachers and countless others take this opportunity to highlight the importance of intellectual freedom and remind us not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted
There are a great many trees which have died in the services of books which never should have been printed (a list which probably includes every book written by a reality TV star). However, that's no reason to ban books, or worse, burn them, simply because they contain ideas or topics I disagree with (if I was permitted to ban books, we'd start with the complete works of E L James).
Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.
Them that begin by burning books, end by burning men.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine
Have you read any banned books? Why were they banned? Was that justified?
I've been looking out for some for the Reading Challenge category. I noticed Winnie the Pooh and The Wizard of Oz were banned at one stage, because talking animals were regarded as dodgy.
ReplyDeleteI had originally planned to review my banned book this week, but then I chose the Bible (yes, it's been banned). I'm on track to read it through in the year, but it's going to be my final post!
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