Free Republic

Banned Book Week was last week. Did you miss it? For anyone who took it seriously, let me just say this: Banned Book Week is a complete fraud. The books highlighted during Banned Book Week are the opposite of banned. If you look at any list of so-called banned books, you'll see titles that have been continuously promoted world-wide and most have sold millions of copies. They're not banned. They're everywhere. And given the cultural climate, you already know what kinds of books these are. Most are books that in any other era would have been correctly classified as obscenity....

We’re in the middle of Banned Books Week — an observance that is troublingly appropriate this year. “The attempts to censor, restrict or ban books in 2024 in the United States continued to surpass pre-pandemic levels, while books with LGBTQ-plus themes dominate the most-challenged list, advocacy groups said in reports released Monday, just as Banned Books Week began,” reports the Washington Post. “The annual event, which will run through Saturday nationwide, seeks to spotlight the value of free and open access to information.”

Taking a sworn oath of office on a Bible meant that you were imperiling your immortal soul if you lied or broke your oath. What in the world are you committing to when you swear in on erotic quasi-fiction for pederasts and groomers?Well, I can’t answer that question, but Karen Smith, an incumbent school board president for Central Bucks School District in Doylestown, Pennsylvania sure could! Last week, Smith was reelected to “serve” as head of the board, and instead of ceremoniously swearing in on a Bible, she opted for a stack of “banned” books, including at least three controversial...

Music superstar Pink was hit with Community Notes on X for falsely claiming some of the most celebrated books were banned in Florida schools due to pornography. On Monday, the singer went viral with her attack on Florida's education reform laws that crack down on books that aren't age-appropriate. "The following are some titles of books that have been banned from schools in Florida…. Lmk which book is pornography…. To Kill A Mockingbird, The Hate You Give, Forrest Gump, A Catcher In The Rye, The Hill We Climb, Girls Who Code, Atlas Shrugged, 1984, The Kite Runner, The Bluest Eye,...

"As we all know democRATs accuse Conservatives, Populists and Republicans of what they themselves do, so it is never a surprise to catch them doing it. Recently a once famed actor whose glory days are long over and whose true acting promise was never fulfilled due to no sequel ever being made for his most famous and best movie decided to openly lie about the greatest governor alive today…and got caught doing so. The great ‘Corvette Summer’ (1978) was a movie that featured a 27 year old man pretending to be a high school senior who falls in love with...

The Bluest Eye. To Kill A Mockingbird. The Hate U Give. Stamped. George. What do these books have in common? Yes, they’re classics—and future classics. But they’re also some of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020. Join One World on Wednesday, September 29 at 8:00 PM ET on Zoom for a special Ideas & Action virtual event where we investigate—and celebrate—Banned Books Week, the freedom of ideas, and the necessity and power of even the most discomforting truths. Hosted by Chris Jackson, publisher and editor-in-chief, and co-sponsored by the American Library Association, Ideas & Action: Banned Books will...

In light of newfound censorship of the children's author, some are flocking to eBay, and many purchasers are willing to dole out thousands of dollars to get their hands on what may be the last copies of some of Dr. Seuss's famous books. Following the announcement that Dr. Seuss Enterprises would stop publishing six of his titles due to claims of racist imagery, owners of the books are scoring potentially big sales on online retailers such as eBay and Amazon. One of the books, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, is going for $20,000 on the...

School officials in Portland, Oregon, have banned books questioning climate change from the classroom. The city's public school board voted last week that any material saying climate change doesn't exist or that humans are not at fault should be removed. The resolution also directs school staff to develop an implementation plan for 'curriculum and educational opportunities that address climate change and climate justice in all Portland Public Schools.' The measure was passed even though the Oregon Institute of Science and medicine is circulating a petition which states: 'there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane,...

A British citizen has become the latest bookseller to go missing in Hong Kong, CNN reports. Lee Bo, who co-owns a bookstore associated with a publisher of books critical of the Chinese government, disappeared last week. Lee is the fifth bookseller from Causeway Bay Books, associated with the publisher Mighty Current, who have disappeared since October. Lee's wife reported him missing to Hong Kong authorities last week, but she attempted to cancel the report on Monday after one of Lee's colleagues received a fax purportedly from the bookseller. The BBC reports that the letter read in part: "I am very...

If you search the Loudoun County Public Library website for Ann's book, "!Adios, America!" you come up with NOTHING. No combination of those words will bring you to her book. Search by author brings you to her book, UNDER THE TITLE "OFFENSIVE" Curious, yes?

A charter school in Southern California is facing the threat of a lawsuit for “purging” Christian books from its library. snip ....Brad Dacus told WND that among the books was “The Hiding Place,” the story of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch woman sent to a prison camp by the Nazis of World War II for helping Jews escape. Dacus said PJI’s legal team and the district have exchanged letters already. snip Strictly religious books, such as the Bible or the Quran, routinely are on library shelves, he argued. Dacus said an immediate correction of the school’s policy would prevent a...

It's Banned Books Week! But people are trying to keep great books out of libraries and schools every hour of every day, year round. And often, people's reasons for challenging these titles are really, really... outlandish. Here are 12 SF and fantasy books that people have given incomprehensible reasons for banning.

Mr. Chairman, this is the single most radical and most dangerous proposal introduced in the 113th congress. If this proposal were adopted, it would repeal the free speech protections of the first amendment. The breadth of this proposal is astonishing. It should lead the evening news on every station. It saddens me that 46 democratic senators have signed their name to a constitutional amendment expressly repealing the free speech provisions of the Bill of Rights. Ted Cruz continues....

There are moments in a person’s life that shake you to your foundation, that cause you to rethink everything you think you know, moments that hit like a two by four upside your head. Just such moment arrived for me late on a Friday afternoon. A friend of mine, let’s call him Adam, since that’s his name, has self-published a book, Formerly Filthy Rich, My Scandalous Life with a Billionaire Cougar. . . . Now his book is at the very least R-rated, and it’s an account of his six year marriage to Nu Skin co-founder Sandie Tillotson. Nu Skin,...

Sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, and the Association of American Publishers, among others, Banned Books Week will be held from September 24th to October 1st; it celebrates the freedom to read and highlights the importance of the First Amendment.

SIA NEWS Washington DC - The Saudi government burns and desecrates hundreds of bibles its security forces confiscate after raids on Christian expatriates worshiping privately or at border crossings. As a matter of official policy, the government either incinerates or dumps bibles, crosses and other Christian paraphernalia. Hundreds of Christian worshipers are arrested every year by Saudi police in raids on their private gatherings. Bibles, crosses and printed materials are confiscated and later burnt or dumped into trash. Bibles and other Christian paraphernalia found with travelers into the country are confiscated and destroyed. Although considered as holy in Islam and...

J.D. Salinger's novel about the life of a troubled teenager was banned by libraries and schools because of its sexual references, violence and language.

Vladimir Nabokov's book about the affair between a twelve-year-old girl and a middle-aged man was banned because it was considered pornography

When D.H. Lawrence finished the last and final writing of Lady Chatterly's Lover, he was not surprised to find resistance from literary agents and publishers. Urged to change the text so that could be published as a work of literary merit, he refused to remove the sex and four-letter words that made it objectionable.

Banned Book Weeks celebrates the freedom to read, the freedom to choose and the freedom to express one's opinion, even if it is unorthodox. Sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) since 1982, it has become an annual event reminding Americans not to take this democratic freedom for granted.