Banned Books

Many authors, artists, and philosophers have argued that no book should ever be banned, no matter how many people it may offend. As Salman Rushdie said, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” Isaac Asimov, the science fiction author and former president of the American Humanist Association, put it this way: “Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.”Despite the consensus around free speech among some of our greatest writers and thinkers, a huge number of books in the United States are frequently challenged and often banned by school districts and libraries. Ironically, many of these banned books are considered classics — titles that could quite easily appear on a recommended reading list from a professor or literary critic.