Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
If you’d like more information on Banned Books Week, head to bannedbooksweek.org. You can also view a list of the Top 100 Banned Books compiled by the American library Association here.
In the meantime, check out some commonly-banned books that we’ve selected, listed below! Have you read any of them?
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Nudity! Murder! Extortion! Unethical medical experiments! Do you dare read this banned book?
Free access here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/84 or request a print copy from the University Libraries!
Candide by Voltaire
Cannibalism! Prostitution! Executions! Sexually-transmitted disease! Can you bear to read this banned book?
Free access here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19942 or request a print copy from the University Libraries!
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Homoeroticism! Slavery! War! Political assassination! Do you have what it takes to read this banned book?
Free access here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1322 or request a print copy from the University Libraries!
Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will by William Shakespeare
Inversion of the social order! Cross dressing! Deviancy! Deception! Can you bring yourself to read this banned book?
Free access here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1526 or request a print copy from the University Libraries!
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Domination and submission! Cruelty! Kidnapping! Murder! Do you have the guts to read this banned book?
Free access here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/215 or request a print copy from the University Libraries!
