Sharp-eyed patrons may have noticed new posters on various tables throughout the Library. Each one features a local author reading a banned book. This is our way of celebrating both the Freedom to Read and Larchmont’s intellectual vitality. Libraries across the nation have similarly themed displays as part of Banned Book Week.
Since 1982, the last week of September has been set aside to celebrate the Freedom to Read. For libraries, the most crucial part of that freedom is access to all ideas, even those considered unpopular or unorthodox. Banned Books Week is an opportunity for us to underscore the tenuous nature of that freedom by highlighting books that have been either removed or sought to be removed from library shelves or school curriculums because of their content.
The American Library Association has been keeping track of these challenged and/or banned books since 1990. Their lists make for interesting albeit somewhat disturbing reading. Most of our local authors used a book from their personal collections.
Speaking of lists, below we’ve got a list of the book each author chose along with some of the books the authors wrote themselves. We can’t fit them all. Todd Strasser, for example, has published more than 140 titles.