It’s that time of year again to do the very thing that overbearing parents and anal-retentive, commandeering childless adults fought so hard to stifle.  Starting today, September 27th and ending next Saturday, October 4th, is Banned Books Week where we of much readage peer upon lists of the most challenged and banned books of years past and scoff at the complete idiocy of it all while thanking whatever god we may or may not believe in that we have the Constitutional right to write things that others would like to set on fire.

So, in honor of Banned Books Week, and to stick it to the schmucks with way too much time on their hands, pick up a book from this past year’s most challenged and banned list and read it.  If you’re feeling extra generous, pass it along to others.  Organize a public reading or send the author a thank you note.  While you’re at it, ask Sarah Palin why she’d even ask a librarian if she’d willingly de-shelf books she wanted banned, even if it’s for nothing more than “loyalty purposes” (/political chide).

Be sure to check out the American Library Association’s plethora of information on banned and challenged books.  And hug a librarian . . . with permission.  After all, I think they’re the ones that love books the most out of anyone and they’re the ones laughing fighting the hardest to keep moronicism at bay.

So what have you read off of that list?  Me?  To Kill A Mockingbird, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Of Mice and Men and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Eh, pretty short and no, I’ve never read Slaughterhouse Five.  I know I must.  I do think I need to get me some merchandise, though.  Or maybe I’ll make myself a t-shirt that says I <3 Banned Books.  Fitting!

Maybe it’s time I read The Joy of Sex.  Obviously those people aren’t using it.  I don’t want it to get dusty.  Yeah . . . that’s it . . .