Read with pride

JERRY FABYANIC Columnist

Green (tie)

6) “ e Perks of Being a Wall ower” by Stephen Chbosky

7) “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison

8) “ e Absolutely True Diary of a PartTime Indian” by Sherman Alexie

9) “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez (tie)

10) “A Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah J. Maas (tie)

11) “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins (tie)

12) “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews (tie)

13) “ is Book Is Gay” by Juno Dawson

But defenders of the First Amendment are ghting back with their voices and their money. is past June, a couple of mind cleansers in San Diego launched their own self-righteous sneak attack. ey checked out and held hostage nearly all the LGBTQ books from a display in the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library. In an email to the head librarian, they said they wouldn’t return them unless the library permanently removed what they considered “inappropriate content.” e stunt was nothing short of literary ransomware. e librarian was dumbstruck, but soon after she got a big-time gift. Actually, lots of gifts. Boxes and boxes packed with copies of the books the hostage-takers checked out started to arrive at the library. Apparently, e San Diego Union-Tribune got wind of the nefarious ploy and reported on it. Roughly 180 people, mostly San Diegans, gave more than $15,000 to the library system with the city anteing up over $30,000 more toward more LGBTQ-themed materials and programming. e ALA points out that polling shows that voters across the political spectrum oppose e orts to remove books from libraries and have condence in the professionals at libraries — and schoolteachers — to make good decisions about their collections. It’s a no-brainer why: ere is nothing more un-American than censorship, and an increasing number of Americans are seeing the crusade against free thought and expression for what it is.

According to a Fox News poll in March of this year, book banning by local school boards was the fourth most concerning issue among parents. Seventy-seven percent were extremely or very concerned about it. at was up 11 points since May 2022, when 66% were extremely or very concerned. It turns out that moms are more worried about book banning (80%) than dads (73%), but both statistics indicate a high degree of anxiety about the crusade to purify thought. e poll also indicated a seven-point drop, from 80% to 73%, in anxiety about what is being taught in public schools. e poll shows that parents and the public at large are becoming more educated about the truth of the situation and are moving from discomfort to outrage. I take that as a glimmer of hope that the war on freedom of thought is being counter-attacked more forcefully.

I continue to be inspired by Dr. Azar Na si’s heroic story about hers and her female students’ attempts to read books from Western literature in theocratic Iran. In “Read Dangerously: e Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times,” Na si addresses the war theocrats are waging on freedom of thought here in America — the land of the free — and shows how it impacts our everyday lives. She also reminds us how it is through literature, from new releases to the Great Works of literature, that lovers of freedom can ght back. In this epic struggle, every free-thinking American is a combatant. Consider taking the ght to the enemy by reading books from the Top irteen list and/or from the multitude of books — even classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Of Mice and Men” — that have been banned or faced banning over the years. I know what will be on my September reading list.

Jerry Fabyanic is the author of “Sisyphus Wins” and “Food for ought: Essays on Mind and Spirit.” He lives in Georgetown.