Read for Your Rights: Banned Books Week Celebration October 5 – 11, 2025
Year after year, books are banned mainly because their contents are deemed potentially harmful for society by some populations. Reasons they provide for banning books are often religious, sexual, moral, social, and political. Interestingly, not only books but plays, films, paintings, images, sculptures, musical compositions, novel philosophical thoughts, and innovative scientific ideas are also challenged all over the world for those reasons.
Such censorship of works is not a modern concern. It dates back to medieval times even before the invention of the printing press. Works including Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were believed to be heretical and potentially dangerous for general readers and were challenged by the reactionary forces of society from that period. Later in the sixteenth century, a list of works titled the Index of Forbidden Books (Index Librorum Prohibitorum) was developed and it stayed active through the twentieth century. Some of the forbidden works listed in the Index were even burned or otherwise destroyed.
However, debarred books and works of art did not completely disappear from human society. Over time, they received appreciation and praise especially from later generations and enjoyed the status of classics. A more pronounced celebration of banned books started in 1982 when the American Library Association launched the Banned Books Week initiative in collaboration with Banned Books Coalition, an international alliance of many organizations that joined to promote the freedom to read. The movement has grown, and Banned Books Week is honored every year, with a different theme each time. The theme for this year’s Banned Books Week is “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.”
Book banning is a battle fought largely between two opposing ideologies, “the right to read” and “the right not to be offended.” Both defenders and opponents of book banning argue vehemently adhering to their distinct viewpoints. While the defenders assert the right to protect innocence of children from offensive language and uneasy histories, maintain parental control, and oversee moral wellbeing of society, the opponents uphold such ideals as intellectual freedom, freedom of expression, critical thinking, respect for diverse perspectives, and compassion and empathy for fellow human beings. Proponents of the freedom to read movement believe that librarians and educators have the expertise to build collections that can encourage the spirit of curiosity; awaken creativity; question dogmatic beliefs; stimulate new scientific discoveries and inventions; and prepare young students to understand complex social issues, find amicable solutions, cultivate a broader worldview, and become informed citizens.
Check out CMU Libraries’ Banned Books list and pick up a book or two from the list for your fall reading.