October 03, 2010

Banned Books Week

As I am always a step behind the times, I just found out that last week, September 25 - October 2, was "Banned Books Week", a week designated to celebrate our freedom to read.

That's great.  I am all for it, and am against censorship.  But it just got me to thinking:  What does "banning" a book really mean?  It's not like all copies of that book are being destroyed.  Are they banned from school libraries?  Are bookstores or libraries not supposed to be distributing them to minors?  Maybe I'm just in an early Sunday morning haze, but I don't really get how a group "banning" a book is really effective.  Banning a book is something that I think I would be outraged about, except for the fact that I'm pretty sure I can get a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird or a Harry Potter book any old time I want, so as far as I can tell, protests against these books are not all that effective.  Am I wrong?  Someone explain it to me, please.

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