Our View: Read A Banned Book

 According to Pen America, nearly twice as many books were banned last year than in the year before. The free expression advocacy group documented 11,982 instances of book bans last year; that’s a staggering increase over just four years ago, when 2,532 book bans were reported.

 During Banned Book week, it’s incumbent on all of us to reflect on how and why this has happened. There’s a certain logic to Stephen King being the most banned author; he’s written more books than almost any other living author and his sometimes supernatural stories are vectors for the religious right. But “Jane Eyre?” “The Handmaid’s Tale?” “The Kite Runner?” All were banned during the past year.

 A map published by Pen shows that two states were responsible for the most banned books: Texas, with more than 8,000, and Florida with more than 3,000. In most states where books were banned, the instances were 100 or under; there were none in Massachusetts. Thankfully we live in a state where school and public librarians aren’t being pressured by religious groups, legislators or others who can’t stomach the fact that someone might want to read something that they object to. As many have said, every individual should be free to choose what to read. Parents are within their rights to restrict their own children’s access to books, but no one has the right to tell someone else what they can or can’t read, or to forcibly remove books from shelves simply because they don’t like the author, subject or theme.

 So exercise your rights and read a banned book this week.