I reserve the right to read whatever I like!!!

For those of you who are out of the know, Sept. 27-Oct. 4, 2008 is Banned Books Week. A few interesting factoids: it’s been observed since 1982, and “is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, National Association of College Stores, and is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.” (Whew, that’s a mouthful, I had to copy and paste that!)

I think it’s just outrageous that people could ban books in the first place. I mean, isn’t that in a way a restriction of free speech? (sort of?) If people can publish anything they want than shouldn’t they be able to read whatever they want? Doesn’t it work both ways? I think it should.

Books get challenged for all sorts of things these days: sexual content, drugs, offensive language, homosexuality, religion, racism, and for being “unsuited to age group” whatever that means. Do adults really think that teens aren’t aware of all of these? Because, believe me, we most definitely are. Reading about racism or gay people isn’t going to spontaneously prompt a teen to become a racist gay. In fact, all reading about these topics does is expose us to these matters, something that is extremely important. And, most of the time, these books promote tolerance. The other things like sex, drugs, religion are just parts of everyday life whether prudish and extremely strict adults want to believe it or not.

In a way, banning books is kind of a sad tradition. Just because you don’t agree with something doesn’t mean you have to stop other people from being exposed to it.

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Other exciting news (on a happier topic!!)

My review of The Midnight Twins has been published in Reuters!!! You can see it here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/entertainment?bbPostId=CzAIQvvUp5TemBAbNOHE7N2nRCz7EdlIXZH4EJCzDZe7hWWWAhX