It’s an unusual year when a Toni Morrison book goes unchallenged. Translation: read more Toni Morrison.
Last week was Banned Books Week. Banned Books Week is a yearly program established by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. The point of the week is to celebrate the freedom to read – to read any and everything one chooses – and to oppose being told what not to read.
I wish every week was Banned Books Week.
Challenges to certain books being on library shelves is more than censorship. It is cowardice. It is ignorance. In faith-based circles, it is a glaring lack of faith.
Fear of the written word is not unfounded. Words are powerful. But rather than being a reason not to read – to shelter ourselves from the scary things – it is a reason to read more. To march bravely into that which frightens us. Often, we will find more good there than evil. Often, it is the place we find God.
Our tendency to cower and avoid things that we don’t instantly understand doesn’t just cause us to miss out on beautiful literature, breathtaking poetry, and raw human prose.
It dumbs us down. It reduces our understanding of human experience to that which is strictly our own personal experience. It whitewashes everything that is not our experience so that it doesn’t seem real.
It robs us of compassion. Failure to read stories that are different from our own perspective is like putting on blinders. It makes us cynical and distrusting. Cynicism breeds contempt. Contempt destroys compassion.
In an electorate that takes foolish pride in how much it rejects, it allows us to remain uninformed, gullible sheep (only less useful and cute).
It’s why, instead of real debates and platforms during election years, we get the circus (I need a new metaphor; circus performers are way more organized than that.).
One of my favorite Humans of New York posts gives a great piece of advice. If you want to change the world, read books by people you disagree with. I am not sure where Brandon Stanton first heard this nugget of wisdom, but it’s solid. I would make it even broader, though.
If you want to change the world – read. Read everything. Read things you like. Read things you don’t like. Read things you never knew you would like until you read them.
I challenge myself to at least one specific reading goal a year. Next year, it’s going to be reading everything on this list that I haven’t already read. Next year is my banned books year.
What book has challenged you the most?
I am taking shelfies and writing about them this month.
M. Suzanne Terry 