Literature is a powerful force! Every September, libraries and bookstores across the country celebrate Banned Books Week to honor the freedom to read and to draw attention to banned and challenged books.

Join the UT Libraries to celebrate your First Amendment rights during Banned Books Week. We are fortunate to live in a nation that protects the expression of even unpopular or unorthodox points of view. But intellectual freedom is in danger when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.

Let’s take this opportunity to state our support for ensuring that all viewpoints are available to those who wish to read them.

Read a banned or challenged book. Follow our chalkboard in Hodges Library (next to Starbucks) for a countdown of the Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2013.

You’d be surprised: even classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Color Purple have been challenged. See the lists compiled by the American Library Association at ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks.

Follow along on Twitter at #volsread and #readbannedbooks and post a shout-out or a quote from your favorite banned book.