2018 Banned Books Week

Happy Banned Books Week! Banned Books Week is a celebration of the freedom to read books that are frequently challenged and targeted for removal from libraries, and runs this year from September 23-29. This year’s theme, “Banning Books Silences Stories,” is a reminder that censorship not only infringes on our intellectual freedom–it harms our ability to create, tell, and share stories. Banned Books Week celebrates free and open access to information; though the books reported by the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom are frequently challenged, they remain accessible to readers in libraries throughout the country.

Duke Libraries owns many of these challenged books. If you’re interested in reading a title that has been challenged historically or in recent years, here are some selected titles:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

The Joy of Gay Sex by Dr. Charles Silverstein

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Absolutely True Diary of the Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

You can check out a list of the most frequently challenged books of 2017 here.