Banned Book Week 2011 - What Are YOU Doing To Celebrate?

Last year, I did a week long giveaway and several posts for Banned Book Week, a week here in the US that celebrates and honors books that have been banned somewhere in the US at one time or another, or that someone has tried to ban. I don't believe in banning a book (or movie or cd, etc). I think an individual should gather as much information as they can about that item and then make an informed decision. If they choose not to read it, fine. If they choose not to let their child read it or to read it with them, fine. But do not take away another person's right to make those same choices and decisions.This year, Banned Book Week is from September 24th to October 1st.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association(ALA), the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Association of College Stores. The Library of Congress Center for the Book endorses it.

I'll be advocating for banned books again this year, but this year there is an organized blog hop relating to Banned Book Week and I happily signed up to participate. Details will come later, but there will be a giveaway of some sort, involving one or more banned books OR a gift card to a book vendor, either Amazon or The Book Depository. I haven't decided yet, but it will be smaller than my event last year.

What can you do? Well, you can also participate in the book blog hop, co-hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and I Read Banned Books. You can work with your local libraries, book stores and schools to set up an event, help publicize both Banned Book Week and any and all local events relating to it, donate a copy of a banned book to your library or school, etc. There are many ways to participate. One way, though, is to video yourself reading from a banned book. Publisher's Weekly Daily had an article about this and I think I may do it.

From the PW Daily article -

For Banned Books Week (Sept. 24-Oct. 1) this year, booksellers and their customers can proclaim their support for free speech on the Internet by joining a worldwide read-out of banned and challenged books. For many years, Banned Books Week has featured readings from challenged titles in bookstores and libraries. This year people can participate no matter where they are–in bookstores, libraries and their own homes–by posting a video of themselves reading their favorite banned book on a special YouTube channel.

Readers can select any banned or challenged book, and excerpts can be up to two minutes in length. Alternatively, people who have worked to defend banned or challenged titles can describe their battles in videos of up to three minutes in length. Booksellers will send the videos to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), which will edit them, add the names and logos of the bookstores where the filming occurred and then post them on YouTube. The videos will also be tagged to make it easy for bookstores to feature them on their websites, blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.

For further information, e-mail info@abffe.org.

 So spread the word and come back during Banned Book Week to talk about what you are doing for BBW and see what I will be giving away.