Note: With the daily insanity, Banned Book Week snuck up on me this year and almost got past me. But today is the final day, so here is a slightly edited version of last year’s column since the issue is still the same. Scared people try to ban books. Librarians think that’s a bad idea. I agree. What banned books have you read?

By Bob Gaydos

Little Free Library RJ Photography

In 1982, the American Library Association began celebrating Banned Books Week in the first week of  October. This is your reminder. It’s that time again. And make no mistake, the people who are waging wars on our freedoms have their sights constantly set on what we read as well as what we think and say.

The aim of this special week, according to the ALA is “to celebrate the freedom to read and to promote silenced voices.” The association keeps track of  books that are challenged or banned in schools and libraries and it has been kept busy since the Trump MAGA cult gained political power.

For the record, in 2024, ALA documented 821 attempts to censor library books and other materials across all library types, a decrease from 2023, when a record high 1,247 attempts were reported. It also recorded attempts to remove 2,452 unique titles in 2024, which far exceeded the average of 273 unique titles that were challenged annually during 2001–2020.

Traditionally specific reasons why books have been banned or challenged include: LGBTQ content, sexually explicit language, profanity, racism, violence, religious viewpoint, sex education, suicide, drug and alcohol use, nudity, political viewpoint and offensive language. Recently, Trump and MAGA groups have gone after recorded history.

Significantly, the ALA says data show that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72 percent of challenges. Parents accounted for just 16 percent. It’s an organized MAGA attempt to control what we read, know and think.

The week is intended to fight that and to promote the freedom to choose what we read. Libraries across the country are sponsoring special events to do just that. My contribution of late has been to list banned books which I have read and to solicit the titles of other banned books from my readers so that we may share them. I am fortunate enough to live in a state that doesn’t go about banning books or deciding what teachers teach based on a few politicians’ ambitions. There’s also a Little Free Library right on Main Street in downtown Pine Bush.

Here’s my list, in no particular order, of banned books I have read. It’s compiled from a few lists I have found on the Internet and includes some books I had no idea were ever the target of attempted banning.

The list:

— The Catcher in the Rye

— To Kill a Mockingbird

— The Lord of the Flies

— 1984

— Lolita

— Catch 22

— Brave New World

— Animal Farm

— The Sun Also Rises

— Invisible Man

— Howl

— One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

— Slaughterhouse Five

— In Cold Blood

— Rabbit, Run

— Moby Dick

— Canterbury Tales

— Captain Underpants

— The Kite Runner

— The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

— The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

— Fahrenheit 451

— Moll Flanders

— A Farewell to Arms

“Captain Underpants” is on my list because I have two sons, now grown. I also think school assignments for one of my sons wound up on the list. Kudos to the teacher.

Please, support your local library and share your favorite banned books with us. Join the fight to protect our freedom to read what we please.

Trevor Noah has been banned.

By Bob Gaydos

     This is just a brief piece to fulfill my promise in my recent column on Banned Books Week to share any contributions readers had to add to the list. Also, to thank those loyal readers who responded with a new piece, since we all know that sometimes we just don’t get around to reading the comments at the bottom.

     So, Terry Schommer offers recent reads, “Born a Crime,” by TV host/comedian Trevor Noah, which some agency apparently had an issue with “anti-Catholic views” and “Autobiography of Malcolm X,” by Alex Haley and Malcolm X for controversial views on racism, violence and politics.

      Kristin Jensen offers “The Hate U Give,” by Angie Thomas, a 2017 novel inspired by police shooting of a young black man at a subway station in Oakland. It’s banned in several states. Florida’s reasoning: “There’s talk of an affair between two adults. Teens engage in heavy petting, talk about having sex and condoms. A teen girl is described as being on birth control, and there’s discussion of teen pregnancy and the assumption that a married couple is having sex when they go to their bedroom and turn the television up loud. A woman is revealed to be a sex worker.” Others cited “anti-police” messages.

      AnneMarie Schuetz offers “Nineteen Minutes,” by Jodi Picoult (banned because of an Iowa state law on sex acts) and the “Ender Wiggin” series by Orson Scott Card. (Depends on whom you talk to.)

     Tom Nalesnik notes “”Song of Solomon” has been banned, as does Linda Mangelsdorf, both also noting that means someone banned The Bible.

      Linda also offered a brief list of challenged books from the American Librarians Association: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck), Beloved (Toni Morrison), My Sister’s Keeper (Jodi Picoult), The Kite Runner (Khalad Hosseini), Glass Castle (Jeanette Walls), Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood), Color Purple (Alice Walker) and Tango Makes 3 (Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell.)

    There you have it. Something old, something new to provide stimulating company in the coming chilly nights.

     Thank you all for your company.

rjgaydos@gmail.com