Ye Shall Not Read

Banning books has always seemed beyond ridiculous to me. What is the point? Ending knowledge? Ending points of view? What if the book you love is the one on the banning block? Does that change things?

The idea behind book bans is to silence those with messages someone doesn't like. I have often wondered what would happen if someone turned the tables on them. 

I recently saw that someone decided to challenge the book bans in their state by using the criteria in them to request the Bible be banned from a library. The official who wrote the book banning bill whined that wasn't what he intended, but let's be clear the criteria fit. I guess that answers the question. And, this wasn't the first time the Bible has been caught up in these kinds of bans... Just Google it. 

The thing is, and this is what they count on, liberal and progressive folks tend to want people to have access to a multitude of books and generally don't try to ban books because we value knowledge and compassion and unity and understanding.

But I do wonder.... 

All we have to do is think about what happened when the Dr. Suess Enterprises decided to take books off the shelves after doing an internal review. They hold the rights to those books and have the right to make those decisions just as I, as an author, have the right to stop publishing any one of my books. That's not government censorship, but some of the news coverage certainly didn't seem to understand the difference.

Laws allowing for banning books by school and libraries and other entities with government funding face a different standard. Let's be clear, there are books I definitely don't think anyone should read, to the point I recently recycled a book rather than allow my copy of this terrible book with a worse message to fall into someone else's hands. That's not censorship though. Other people can still buy the book, read the book, and do whatever they want with it. I just wish they wouldn't. My wishes, however, are just that, my wishes. My point of view. I don't get, or even want, to impose them on other people.

Banning books is a way to sow division by not allowing children and even adults to read books that could help them better understand their fellow Earthlings, the world around them, the historical context of modern events, and anything that might challenge the dominant group in society. That leads to an incomplete education and also does a complete disservice to society.

A few years ago, I returned to my high school, which was closed down and basically abandoned in the 1990s. The library still had many books on the shelves and even more on the floor. I found a couple of books I had checked out during my time there. The new owner of the building let me have them. To be honest, I wanted to clear out the library. It made me sad and a little bit angry to see all those books treated with such abject disrespect and apparent disdain. But I digress a bit. One of the two books I took from the school, Hey, Dollface by Deborah Hautzig, was apparently about two female friends exploring and struggling with their romantic feelings for each other. I don't even remember reading it. I also don't remember anyone making a fuss about it (an internet search showed it has been banned in some places for "showing homosexuality in a positive light"), and I grew up in a fairly conservative area.

I've also seen that people are starting to file lawsuits against these book bans
citing the bans as being violations of their first amendment rights. I hope more people will follow suite. Because let's be clear, the book they come after next could be one you love, one you support, one you want your children to read. When we allow the government to create a law under the guise of parental rights that strips away first amendment rights from some, we start the process of stripping away first amendment rights from all.

Keep in mind that over time, you have probably read a book that someone somewhere decided should be banned at some point in time. I know I have read many. You might just be surprised by which books have received that distinction over the course of their existence.

All of the photos included in this post include books from my bookshelves that
have been banned at some point according to several banned books lists I found on the internet. Going through the lists, I see many others I've read but don't currently have copies of. 

A few of the lists I looked at include:

ALA Banned & Challenged Classics

Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022

CBS News The 50 most banned books in America

FIRE Banned Books

I have added a banned books category to my reviews on Reviews with TLC, and gone back and categorized previous banned books I've reviewed as such and will continue to document them going forward.

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