Read Out! Against Banned Book fourth annual event allows organizations to come together to increase the awareness about reading banned books.
These books have been targeted by people, ranging from parents to lawmakers, who feel the books are not appropriate to have in libraries.
So the University of Idaho Library participated in Banned Books Week by hosting live readings of banned books from UI staff and other guests.
Suzie Davis, the library technician for the Curriculum Center helps run the event and recruit the readers. Each reader chooses a book from the American Library Association’s list of banned books. The readers then read their book for 15 minutes.
How does a book get banned though?
“Most often banned, or challenges of books are done in elementary or public libraries,” Davis said. “And typically, it’s parents who just think that it’s not (an) appropriate book to have in the library.”
Brianna Finnegan | Argonaut
This week helps promote and highlight books that have been banned or challenged. Some of the banned books read included “Harry Potter,” “Catch-22,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years,” “Walter the Farting Dog” and others.
While the event attracted few people to the seats, the people who attended were glad to come. Annabelle Day, a UI student, attended this event this year and last year.
“I love the idea of being able to speak out against censorship in such a way,” Day said. “And just love being able to relive some childhood memories with some good old books that we used to read.”
Rula Awwad-Rafferty, an interior architecture and design professor, was supportive of this event. As she comes to this event every year because she believes in its importance and hopes more faculty and students will attend as well.
“The idea of a book being banned is really offensive to me, personally and professionally,” Awwad-Rafferty said. “I think everybody is entitled to read — it’s a very dangerous proposition to ban a particular book simply because you disagree with its language or you disagree with its content because it makes somebody be more in control of what other people can read or cannot read.”
Even UI President Scott Green supported Banned Book Week. Reading “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck — he couldn’t believe it was on the banned book list.
“You know Steinbeck? I mean he is one of the greatest American authors ever to live,” Green said. “So I just felt it was important that we recognize that and honor it.”
Green was a part of the event because he believes it’s a part of “our mission” as a university.
“Our mission here is education, right?” Green said. “And these banned books are, in my opinion, some of the best books ever written.”
If you want to know what books have been challenged or banned, you can go to the American Library Association’s website.
Ryan Hill can be reached at [email protected].