Read a banned book this week!

Banned Books Week is getting a lot of blog buzz these days.

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

What can you do to support Banned Books Week? Why, read a challenged or banned book, of course! Go here for the list of the most challenged books of 2004.

Go here for information about challenged and banned books, as well as listings of the top ten challenged authors from 1990-2004.

And finally, the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000.

I have read 35 of these books, at least half of those were required reading in high school and/or college. I can't imagine those books ever being removed from the curriculum, either, as some of them are the most powerful American writers of the 20th century. I don't think I would have survived puberty without Judy Blume. And what the hell is wrong with Waldo?

It is long past time that America starts accepting who and what people are, the good and the bad, without thinking that these voices must be censored.