blog
09/23/2008
read a banned book week!
Posted by Zadi Diaz


In this week's show we talked about Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read whatever the heck we want. According to the official website, the national event "was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstore and libraries." It's pretty insane to think that literary classics are still challenged til this day.

Here are just some of the books that were banned or challenged in 2008:

The Kite Runner: Banned in Afghanistan because of a rape scene and the ethnic tension it depicts.

The Giver: Banned because of it raising discussion around suicide.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Banned for its depiction of racism

So there are some pretty hard-core reasons behind the banning of some of these books, and I suppose for some groups it's all justified... but isn't the conversation these books would inspire the first step to understanding ourselves as a people? What do you think?

Amazon and Google both have a more extensive list of the books that have been banned and challenged. You can also find out more about the celebration through the American Library Association website.