#BannedBooksWeek ~ Sept. 25 to Oct. 1

Amnesty International and the American Library Association sponsor what I feel should be a Global Celebration. 

Banned Books Week is, according to the ALA:

“…an annual event celebrating the freedom to read…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.”

You can see a list of the ten Most Challenged Books of 2015 on the Banned Books Week Coalition Site.

Time for a short video about Banned Books:

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Sunday, September 27th, Begins #BannedBooksWeek 2015 !

It’s true we live in confusing times—torn by radically opposing ideas—drenched with rank materialism; all making Banned Books Week a fascinating U.S. “celebration”.

You can explore how a high school overrode their own rules to ban a book for a handful of parents…

Or, how a book about medical ethics and history is called “pornographic”…

Do we still need a Banned Books Week?

A few excerpts from the official site:

“There was obviously a good reason for starting it in 1982. Efforts to remove controversial books from schools and libraries skyrocketed following the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980…”

“In the mid-1990s, there were almost 800 book challenges per year.”

And, when considering that a certain observer says “…book challenges [are] isolated and rare’. They are a mere ’rounding error in our free speech accounting’…”, the site says:

“…statistics do not give a full picture of what is going on. The reality is that censorship is still a problem in this country, and most of the victims are kids. Sometimes books are literally taken out of their hands. In Tucson a couple of years ago, school officials entered a classroom and collected books that they then tossed in boxes marked ‘banned’.

“In 2014–2015, there were efforts to censor Young Adult books by Sherman Alexie, Stephen Chbosky, Chris Crutcher, Emily M. Danforth, Barthe DeClements, Cory Doctorow, John Green, Ellen Hopkins, David Levithan, Stephanie Meyer, Jodi Picoult, Marjane Satrapi, and Raina Telgemeier.”

Read more reasons to celebrate Banned Books Week…

Also, check out the American Library Association’s Frequently Challenged Books…

And, here’s a video of the Executive Director of the American Library Association reading a banned book:

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Read Some Strange Fantasies
Grab A Free Novel…
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Banned Books Week plus Secret Banning . . .

Yesterday began Banned Books Week sponsored by American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; the Freedom to Read Foundation; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; National Association of College Stores; PEN American Center and and Project Censored.  It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Back in May I published a post called Book Banning (Open & Secret) and The Politics of Publishing, which, in honor of Banned Books Week, I now repost…

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This blog’s visitor numbers, by country, show the United States taking an oscillating percentage between 50 and 70%.

I’m happy, living in the U.S., that there are that many folks from other countries visiting and hope their number increases…

Still, many people see the U.S. as leading the way in democratic freedoms.

Sad to say, politics and corporate agendas are swiftly eroding true liberty in the U.S. and it becomes particularly painful when I see its action in the publishing industry.

But, publishing houses are corporations and are, in turn, owned by larger corporations…

And, corporations and politicians are the current “masters” of humanity.

My novel treats of this phenomenon but goes further and has the corporations completely absorbing politics—no more parties or candidates, just The Corporation…

Perhaps my book will be banned one day………

Yet, even though freedom to publish is aided by all the initiatives in self-publishing, the political climate is darkening and the pall of population control is widening.

What of the non-fiction world, where authors attempt to uncover plots against freedom and clear the murk of political obfuscation?

It’s becoming somewhat like the novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury…

In case you’re of the mind to ignore the dangers from crushing oppression of humanity’s freedom, I dare you to watch this video:

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