When Book Bans Threaten Reading as Freedom
I've always seen reading as a form of freedom. For me, it started as freedom from the teasing and shame of sitting alone at the elementary school lunch table, escaping to the library.
Every book allows you to decide something for yourself. That's what makes reading so powerful. You take the message that resonates and leave the rest.
So this rise in book bans, highlighted by the American Library Association, sits uncomfortably with me.
I'm noticing a pattern: the moment access to ideas becomes selective, there's a shift that not many people consider.
You're no longer just choosing what to read. You're choosing from what's been made available to you, which is a very different kind of "freedom".
Reading was never meant to be comfortable. It's supposed to challenge you, expose you to perspectives you might disagree with, and force you to think more critically, not less.
When that range narrows, so does the space for independent thought.
And the thing about that kind of shift is that it rarely feels dramatic and is almost invisible - you can't miss something you don't have. Most people won't feel restricted as they engage with what's in front of them, assuming it's the full picture. That should worry us more than you think.
Because if we're not careful, we lose access to certain books, and along with that, the friction that helps us think for ourselves.
Without that, reading stops being a tool for freedom and starts becoming something else entirely.
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