Book Matters: How many banned books have you read?

SALT LAKE CITY — In 1633, Galileo was found guilty of heresy and his book, "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems," was banned by the Catholic Church. The prolific physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, who claimed that the Earth went around the sun instead of being the fixed center of the universe, was forced to publicly recant his sacrilegious claim and spend the duration of his life under house arrest.

Over the centuries there have always been books that challenge the norm and push the limits of traditional thought. And there have always been people or groups ready to push back. Esther Lombardi wrote, "A book may be challenged or banned on political, religious, sexual, or social grounds."

Many of these books have been officially removed from libraries or classrooms and even refused publication. The authors who write them are often ostracized and made the target of angry uproars. In extreme cases, these controversial books have been burned and people found in possession accused of treason or heresy, condemned to death, torture, prison time and other severe punishments.

Thankfully as society has evolved, so have our freedoms and collective open-mindedness. In 1835, Galileo's book was removed from the index of banned books and in 1979 Pope John Paul II apologized for the church's error.

Our forefathers solidified the importance of the freedom to write and read whatever we choose when they wrote the First Amendment in the United States Constitution. One of the things that makes our country great is the ability for each individual to do, think, live, act, write and read as he or she sees fit. This long-sacrificed-for individuality is priceless.

Because censorship does still exist, though not usually in extremes, every year, during the last week of September, librarians, teachers, booksellers and community members come together to raise awareness.

According to the American Library Association, Banned Books Week is an effort to educate others on the "importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society."

The ALA also says, "Intellectual freedom — the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular — provides the foundation for Banned Books Week."

Books have always and will always be a means for sharing ideas. And even when some of those ideas are unsettling or even revolutionary, they have a right to exist and individuals have the right choose to read it or not. After all, Galileo was right.

The following is a list of some popular books that have been banned or challenged. How many have you read?

• "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
• "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain
• "Forever" by Judy Bloom
• "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
• "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
• "The Harry Potter Series" by J.K. Rowling
• "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer
• "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson
• "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl
• "And Tango Makes Three" by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
• "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle
• "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
• "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
• "The Giver" by Lois Lowery
• "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck
• "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriett Beecher Stowe
• "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss
• "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown
• "1984" by George Orwell
• "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman
• "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
• "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
• "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert
• "Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
• "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
• "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker
• "I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing" by Maya Angelou
• "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
• "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
• "Beloved" by Toni Morrison
• "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
• "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
• "Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut

For more details on why these books have been challenged, go to CollegeDegrees.org.For more information on Banned Books Week and more book lists, visit the ALA website.

Next week: The Children's Book Festival

Teri Harman writes and reads from home amid the chaos of three young children. For book reviews, book suggestions and more book fun, visit book-matters.com. Find Teri on Facebook (Book Matters-Teri Harmon) or Twitter (@BookMattersTeri).

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