I have always been a big proponent of reading banned books, especially now with all of the challenges and bans happening at libraries throughout the US, and with the legislation that is being proposed against libraries, librarians, authors and more.

A few years ago, I picked up a book designed to have you read 52 banned books over the course of a year. This was written just before the current surge of bans started. I had originally intended to follow this plan and read the 52 books listed there, but have since decided that I both want and need to do more, so I started putting together my own Banned Book Project.

I am currently in the process of going through the list of banned and challenged books over the past 5 years. Not just the top 100 books from each year, but all of them. This is a slow process, because there are a lot of books. Of course, many books are on the list every year, and others just appear once or twice. I figure it’s going to take me another month-ish to get all of the books on a spreadsheet.

While I would like to say that I intend to read every banned book on the list, that’s really not going to happen. I don’t need to read any of the books on puberty, for instance, because I am well beyond it. There are also some books from genres I just don’t enjoy, so I’m not going to force myself to read them. This will require more refining on the list.

Once the list is refined to genres I read (which is honestly most of them), I then intend to read everything on the list. Of course there are quite a few that I have already read and can mark off right away. Some of them, however, I read when I was in school over thirty years ago (like 1984, Brave New World, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.). Anything that I read more than 10 years ago will remain on the list so that I can re-read it with fresh eyes.

Because there are hundreds (probably thousands) of books  that will be on this list, I know that I will not be completing it any time soon, but it will become an additional point of focus as I choose books to read and recommend.

I’ll share more on this project as I get everything pulled together.