From September 22-28 we celebrated Banned Book Week, an annual event which commemorates our freedom to read. A banned book is a book which has been censored for its content. This causes a book to be removed from public schools, libraries, or bookstore shelves. Here at the Annandale Campus Library, we think readers have the right to interpret and judge a book for themselves, and celebrate our freedom to do so.

Students were surprised to see the books that at some point in their publication have been banned. At the library, we held an informal survey to see which of the banned books had been read by our students. The graph below shows how many students have read each of the selected titles.

Events like this remind us of how important our freedoms are, and helps us remember not to take them for granted. Even if a book has an element deemed controversial or deviant, we should be allowed to read them. Ideas were meant to be shared.
Which book surprised you most to see on the banned book list? If you want to read a banned book, you should consider joining NOVAReads! Banned Books is a category for this year’s reading contest, so feel free to start with one of the books on this list! To sign up for NOVAReads, visit https://learn.vccs.edu/enroll/B3HM6B and join with your myNOVA username and password.