A twelfth-century Judaic scholar once wrote, “Make books your treasure and bookshelves your gardens of delight.”

October 5-12, 2025 is Banned Books Week, a good time to remember that advice. Since I’m still on the road, I’m just going to highlight this activity with a few words and then send you to other posts and past MTC essays on the topic.

Book banners target a wide range of titles and subjects. My vote for most ridiculous is Hop on Pop. Seriously!

If you are looking for events to support those who are fighting book bans, the American Library Association is a good place to start. As for steps we each can take, here are a few of my favorites from their list:

• Write a letter to a favorite banned or challenged author. Take some time to thank a banned or challenged author for their words. Author addresses and Twitter handles can be found on the Dear Banned Author page.

• Submit content that address censorship and banned books to the Intellectual Freedom Blog. Posts can be news items, reviews and listicals.

• Proclaim Banned Books Week at your local library. Use our proclamation template to announce your library’s dedication to the freedom to read.

• Stock up on Banned Books Week materials. Every year, OIF produces a line of Banned Books Week products. Show your literary pride with T-shirts, bookmarks and posters, while helping support OIF. We also offer a free downloads page with graphics, official logos and social media tools.

• Write a letter to the editor. Edit and adapt this “Read a Banned Book” opinion column for your local newspaper. Include local Banned Books Week programs so your community can support their right to read.

America’s problem is not that we’re reading too many books. Free people read freely! Minnesota Governor and former Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz phrased it so simply and eloquently during last year’s campaign:

“I’m surrounded by states who are spending their time figuring out how to ban Charlotte’s Web in their schools while we’re banishing hunger from ours with free breakfast and lunch.

We’re not banning books; we’re banishing hunger. It’s that simple.”

The snazzy reminder from People for the American Way is worth seeing twice in one post, alongside my bookshelf that definitely was not created by a designer buying “books by the foot” to provide me with an attractive video background (or “shelfies” as they are known).

Read!

More to come . . .

DJB

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For other MTC essays on libraries, bookstores, and banned books, see:

• Free people read freely (2024)
• Praise for the independent bookstore (2024)
• Fighting for a people-powered future (2023)
• America’s problem is not that we’re reading too many books (2022)
• In praise of public libraries (2020)
• The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter (2017)

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Photo of DJB in his “Knowledge is Power: Read Banned Books” t-shirt by Andrew Brown