Banned Books Week 2012

Celebrate the freedom to read. September 30 through October 6, 2012 is Banned Books Week.

So what's the big deal about censoring a few dusty tomes? Well, click here for a list of books that have been banned, challenged or restricted in the last year. Do you recognize any of them? Some of the titles may surprise you. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, for instance, would never have entered my radar as dangerous. But there's probably a little something for everyone on that list. As Nebula award-winner Catherynne Valente said, "If it's good and popular, it's been banned."

Find out if one of your favorite classics has been threatened with censorship and why. I discovered that A Separate Peace by John Knowles, which I studied in high school, was challenged for “unsuitable language” within my own school district just two years after I graduated. I loved A Separate Peace. It shaped how I look at the world, I believe, for the better. How sad it would have been if my fellow students had been denied the same opportunity I had to learn from that book. If you want to know more about the censorship of books, the American Library Association (ALA) has a wealth of information, including a video essay by Bill Moyers, the honorary co-chair of this year's Banned Books Week.

Celebrated author Junot Diaz said of censorship, "Every time we ban a text we're basically tearing a page from the book of our democratic culture." If you want to see what he and several other prominent writers think about their favorite banned books, the Association of American Publishers (APA) asked them and this is what they had to say:

Do you have a favorite book that has been banned or challenged?

Coming Attractions November 2012

New fiction bestsellers are coming soon! 

Click on the book title to reserve your copy today.

The Road Goes Ever On

Today, friends, is Hobbit Friday. For those who are not enormous Tolkien geeks, this means pretty much nothing. You can skip to the next paragraph if you want to. But for we who are, September 21 marks the day that J.R.R. Tolkien first published The Hobbit 75 years ago. And tomorrow, is of course, the birthday of both Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, the heroes of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, respectively. So for me, this day has been celebrated by eating a second breakfast, watching the trailers for the new adaptation of The Hobbit (being released in December), and wearing a replica of the One Ring on a chain around my neck--although it does seem to fit perfectly on my finger... maybe I could just slip it on for a second...

 But even for those who do not subscribe to various Tolkien-related newsletters and message boards, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is still highly anticipated. Simply put, it promises to be spectacular. Stories of epic journeys have always intrigued me, speaking to that place of deep wanderlust that lives inside mankind, which is probably why these are some of the oldest stories ever told. Everyman leaves home to find adventure, and grows along the way. Even the most homebody-ish of us seems to want to live vicariously through these characters that get dragged into a journey, often reluctantly, and come out all the better for it.

So, without further ado, here is just a sampling of the great journeying and adventure stories, both with reluctant adventurers and eager ones, that we have here in our collection at the library. There's something for everyone, from Under the Tuscan Sun to The Odyssey.