I’ve always enjoyed the official start of Fall, but one of the more recent heralds of the season is Banned Books Week, something I’ve posted about on this blog since 2018. Much like Pumpkin Spice, some people hate on particular books for the most spurious of reasons. And then some people get mad that you use words like ‘spurious,’ which they’re pretty sure has to be a naughty word.
I’ll be posting throughout the week, but this post from last year, with the link to PEN America’s exhaustive list of banned books by state via Harper’s Bazaar(!) remains a valuable resource.
The American Library Association has its usual resources, including the dedicated Banned Books Week website, book ban data (for 2023 and to date for 2024), a deeper dive into Censorship by the Numbers, plus the top 10 banned or challenged books for 2023, because who doesn’t love a top 10?
Now, if none of the books grab you (or perhaps you’ve made a censor’s head explode by reading them all already), then you can check out the archive of top 10s, or perhaps scan the collections of top challenged books by decade (1990s, 2000s, 2010s). And there’s the PEN America’s list above.
So enjoy reviewing the lists. If you’re like me, you may have read many of the books on the list, but there’s so, so much more to learn about. Your local library may have a displays this week as well.
And don’t worry, you can keep on reading next week as well.
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