Sunday Salon: I read banned books...but not this week ~ 3sg jef fery

Banned Books Week starts today, but it kind of snuck up on me this year. Last year, I was excited to participate for the first time; I read Speak and re-read Forever and A Wrinkle in Time. Like many of us, I believe it's important to read and discuss and challenge books that are challenged, and I think that designating a week each year in support of that cause is a very worthwhile thing.

But it's not a thing I'll be able to do this week. I've got reviews due for Shelf Awareness and the BlogHer Book Club; books with hard review deadlines (and that will yield a few dollars when those reviews get done) move to the front of the line these days. That's one of the ways in which getting paid to read and review books can be a "be careful what you wish for" thing. Especially when your reading time is limited because of other activities - family responsibilities, your full-time job, trying to keep up with your blogging - it can be hard to find space in the line sometimes for those books that no one's waiting to have you write about. At any rate, it's hard for me to do it right now, and I can't make that space for Banned Books Week. I hope I'll be able to next year.

(I did review The Handmaid's Tale a couple of weeks ago, though - that one's been banned a few times. Can we count that?)

Do you have any plans involving banned books this week?