Throughout history, books have frequently been targets of censorship. From the wholesale destruction of Mayan and Aztec codices to Nazi book burnings, silencing voices and restricting access to information is nothing new. Unfortunately, the United States has actively participated in book banning, notably during the McCarthy era and in the early 1980s. In fact, Banned Books Week was established in 1982 as a way to combat censorship and support our freedom to read. But book banning is all in the past, right? Wrong.
Since 2021, there’s been an escalation of book bans in schools, libraries, and bookstores throughout the United States. In the 2024-2025 academic year alone, PEN America counted 6,870 school book bans in 23 states and 87 public school districts. The books in question are often about racism, sexuality, gender, and history. Additionally, targeted authors are typically women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Who is trying to ban books in 2025, you ask? Well, it’s typically organized movements and includes school board members, parents, government officials, and administrators. As PEN America notes, in the case of schools, these pressure groups attack books that professional librarians and educators selected as part of the age-appropriate curriculum. When school boards override the selections, you’ve got a book ban on your hands.
Banned Books Week 2025
Enter, Banned Books Week, which brings together librarians, booksellers, publishers, teachers, and readers in support of our freedom to read. It’s an annual celebration that sheds light on the value of open access to information and warns about the dangers of censorship.
Banned Books Week 2025 runs from October 5-11, and its theme is “Censorship Is So 1984. Read For Your Rights.”
So, if you want to protect your intellectual freedom, grab a book from the following list. Fight for your right to read and tell censors, “Screw you, I read what I want.”
50 Banned Books to Read
This list of books includes classics that have been consistently banned since their publication, as well as modern literature making waves in the past few years. I selected many of the titles from the American Library Association’s lists of challenged books and PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans.
Books About Banned Books and Censorship
If you want to get meta, pick up a book about banned books. I’ve also included a few titles about censorship in general.
Resources
American Library Association Banned Books Week
PEN America: What is a Book Ban?
Merch
If you’d like to show the world that you read whatever the hell you want to read, pick up some Banned Books and Censorship merch at the American Library Association’s (ALA) Library Gift Shop. FYI, these are not affiliate links; they’re just a way for you to directly support libraries in the United States by buying some cool items.
Leave a Reply