UF Honors Program celebrates Banned Books Week

September 27, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Honors Program will celebrate Banned Books Week Sept. 30-Oct. 4.

Events include a kickoff barbecue and field day Sunday at Hume Field featuring the UF Quidditch Team and the opportunity for students to take a picture with their favorite banned book. There will also be a screening of “Easy A,” a movie based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter,” at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Yulee Pit. The week will conclude with “Why America Needs Kurt Vonnegut,” a lecture by Marc Leeds, president of the Kurt Vonnegut Society, at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 in Smathers Library Room 1A. The lecture is co-sponsored by the George A. Smathers Libraries. A full list of the week’s events is available at http://www.honors.ufl.edu/Banned-Books-Week-2012.aspx.

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. It brings together readers, teachers, librarians and journalists in support of the freedom to seek and express ideas, some of which may be unorthodox and unpopular. Some popular banned books include the Harry Potter series, “The Hunger Games,” “Fahrenheit 451” and “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

The Honors Program is hosting Banned Books Week as a way of questioning what it means to ban books in the digital age. The events will spark discussion about banned books and, in so doing, celebrate the freedom to read.