Banned Books Week: Store Says It With Pictures

Banned Books Week is in full swing at stores and libraries around the country, where events range from First Amendment panel discussions and Banned Children's Books Storytime to Banned Film Night and readings from banned books.

At Fayetteville, Arkansas' Nightbird Books, the celebration is being documented in photos via the store's website and in-store displays. For the second year in a row, store owner Lisa Sharp is encouraging customers to make a donation to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, and in return she will add their pictures to the store photo gallery.

Photos currently include customers with their favorite books ("banned or otherwise"), including And Tango Makes Three, Choke, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Sharp noted that her customers are especially attuned to censorship issues, after a 2005 attempt by a Fayetteville resident to ban several books at a local high school.

The bookstore is also hosting author Tom Andes, a contributor to Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives, part of McSweeney's Voice of Witness series, which seeks to shed light on human rights issues through oral history. "Obviously it's not a banned book," said Sharp, but it is still very much an appropriate choice for Banned Books Week since "it's about people who are marginalized." Following the reading, attendees are all invited to head to a local restaurant to watch tonight's vice presidential debate.

Nightbird is also offering FREADOM gift cards. Ten percent of money added to these gifts cards will be donated to ABFFE by the bookstore.

BTW invites booksellers who are participating in BBW 2008 to send pictures and descriptions of their events and displays to [email protected]. --Karen Schechner