Banned Books Week -- 22~28 Sep 2013

[tubemonkey]

Read a banned book lately?

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community –- librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

• Official Website
• Banned Books That Shaped America
• Frequently Challenged Books

[glnnjnsn]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Read a banned book lately?

On a related note, the (US) Google Play Store has 20 e-books from the frequently challenged list on sale for $5 each this week. So if you haven't read one lately, it's a little more affordable to do so if you buy before Sunday.

[patrickt]

I don't consider a school district in Minnesota not having a book in their library as book banning. A neo-Nazi group donated books to our library and they were pissed when they weren't put on the shelves. They were held in a special reserved section for people doing research. I didn't consider that banning either. If NAMBLA had donated books I doubt they would have gone on the shelves. That's called exercising judgement and responsible behavior and not book banning. I know it's hard to believe but our local library did not have a section for hardcore porn.

"Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller was banned. You couldn't legally sell it and you couldn't send it through the mails. That's banning.

[frahse]

"Banned in Boston" was a selling point in the old days!

[Sydney's Mom]

Thanks Just bought Fahrenheit 451. Never read it.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I don't consider a school district in Minnesota not having a book in their library as book banning. A neo-Nazi group donated books to our library and they were pissed when they weren't put on the shelves. They were held in a special reserved section for people doing research. I didn't consider that banning either. If NAMBLA had donated books I doubt they would have gone on the shelves. That's called exercising judgement and responsible behavior and not book banning. I know it's hard to believe but our local library did not have a section for hardcore porn.

"Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller was banned. You couldn't legally sell it and you couldn't send it through the mails. That's banning.

I disagree. All of your examples are attempts to decide what literature someone else has access to. I might be swayed by the argument that community money shouldn't be spent on literature that the majority of the community finds offensive, but you specifically described donated books. It's "exercising judgement" when you apply it to your personal library, but tyranny to apply it to public space. The only restriction that I would consider reasonable is "no minors in this section without an accompanying parent or guardian."