I started this blog when I was in between jobs so that I could stay connected to the book world. The thing I loved most about being a bookseller was always putting a book in a customers hand. Reading has always been a part of my life and I loved introducing that to anyone who would listen. I am lucky today that my office mate loves books like I do. We talk about them all the time and learned we have similar tastes. She has introduced me to some wonderful books and I have shared mine with her. The head of our department is also a reader, he has even loaned me some of his favorites. My sister is a writer so we talk about books and writing all the time. My favorite conversations are when she discuss' what she is working on. It is a privilege to be able to read what I want when I want.
It has been most disheartening when I hear about book banning. There are many books I do not agree with or like but I would never tell someone not to read them. Even books I struggle to read teach me something. When I worked in the children's department of B&N I would see parents struggle to find a book for their child. They would come in the store with a required book list only to have the child not want to read any of them. The parent would be frustrated because their child wanted to read something that seemed trite to them. This is when I would suggest buying a book from the list and a book the child wanted. It wasn't just that I wanted to create more sales but I truly wanted the child to read what they enjoyed and I didn't want them to be turned off by reading.
Getting back to today's Day of Action and the Freedom to Read.....it amazes me that there is a group of people who insist that they know better about what is taught in school and what books a library can have on their shelves. Books are a way for children and adults to expand their view of the world. We need to be able to see the world as a whole not a narrow minded perspective.
History is messy and the world is messy but books can take this messiness and explain it. Books are magical and thoughtful, they can expose the reader to truths in a way that listing facts cannot. We as a people have so much to learn, it is in reading we can see all points of view. If we are only one sided we will never learn to accept each other and our differences. Banning is not the way to push an agenda. A child told not to do something will almost always find a way to do it. Tell a child not to read something and inevitably they will be curious and do it anyway.
I am not sure what else to say except --thank you to the Librarians and Teachers who are fighting against these bans. Thank you to the writers who will not stop writing their truths and spreading their knowledge. We must all stand together to fight against injustice. Our future depends on it!
