Books are weapons in the war of ideas, Pt II

Yep, I read that editorial in the Wall Street Journal about how we don't need Banned Books Week anymore, and yes, it made me depressed (and there is quite a good rebuttal on the Huffington Post). Also, here in the True North Strong and Free we celebrate Freedom to Read week in February, so I kind of consider discussing such matters in September/October to be very gauche. Around here, we like to save our talkin' energy for discussing how cold it is outside.

That said, if there's one thing I have read recently that really touched me, that made me value my own freedom to read and that of the patrons of my library, it's this librarian's letter to a patron responding to a book challenge. Yep, we do still need to remember--once a year, if not more often--that books do get challenged in libraries and schools, and that when books are actually removed from those places, it improverishes a whole community. But I guess the flip side of that equation is that it would be wonderful if we could all respond to challenges with as much sensitivity, thoughtfulness and passion as this librarian does.

(I first saw this in the twitterstream of @neilhimself, author Neil Gaiman.)