National Hug a Librarian Week

Banned Books Week started on September 29th. I'm late so bear with me, but IRL I have a sorta excuse because I was reading One of the Guys by Robert Clark Young. You probably haven't heard of this book. It's a fantastic tale about a man that impersonates a US Navy chaplain and finds his way onto an LST that's headed for the Pacific. It's pretty funny, and explicit, however I'd say this is a total must read for all sailors past and present. I didn't know of it myself until I was on a Wiki click through a couple of Fridays ago.

You know how sometimes you'll start reading about one thing, and then 'Ooh, that looks interesting' so you open it in another window and then there was that other thing you remembered and you're listening to NPR and Bill O'Grady's like 'David Foster Wallace found dead' and you have no idea who that is, so you find out, and your browser crashes because you have 8 windows open and the next thing you know you're buying a used book at 2am and when you wake up in the morning you're not sure if you've dreamed the whole thing or not. Ever happen to you?

The act of banning books, fosters a preposterous notion that a human being is incapable of independent thought. I also believe that making things taboo has the opposite effect. In the case of a book, I feel it is far more dangerous thing to suggest that an idea is taboo.

What is a book? At the very core, a book is an author's vision, and I can only speak for myself, but I've never allowed one person's vision to color my opinion of things. It is a shallow, conceited belief to think that you are doing a service to someone by preventing them from forming a judgment on their own, by denying them exposure to something that may or may not benefit them. Really, it's their choice to find out, and if you have faith in a person's character than there's nothing to be worried about.

So hug your librarian, because they're the ones out there fighting for this stuff.

Ideas should not be locked away from the world to die when they can be housed in a perfectly good library.