Freedom to Read Week 2012

It’s Freedom to Read Week! From February 26 to March 3, readers and writers across Canada have the opportunity to participate in events that celebrate the importance of being able to read whichever books you choose to read. Each year, the organizing committee of Freedom to Read Week, the Book and Periodical Council (BPC), list on their website the many ways you can get involved. This year, you can participate by entering a photo contest, attending events, freeing a challenged book or becoming a sponsor. For more information, please visit http://freedomtoread.ca/

The freedom to read whatever one chooses is a topic many readers and writers feel passionately about. Canadian writer Daniel Cox, author of the forthcoming novel Basement of Wolves (Arsenal Pulp Press) was inspired to make a video about the importance of challenging ideas, not books. He told Open Book, “Treating literature like a controlled substance means criminalizing the words that people use to free themselves. We all desperately need freedom, so I guess we will all become criminals. I will continue to tote challenged books proudly. Unconcealed.”