Stamford librarian Elaine Krikorian points out titles on the list. John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" is there. So is "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker. J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" is No. 1.
No, it's not a preferred reading list. The books Krikorian is talking about either have been banned or were, at some point, in danger of being banned. They're all highlighted at Stamford's Ferguson Library during Banned Books Week, which begins Saturday and runs through Oct. 2.
"It's very interesting, how poetry or short stories or science fiction get on the list. It is pretty amazing," said Krikorian, information services librarian, who put together the banned books display. She also organized its kick-off event.
Ferguson will start the week Saturday with its own Banned Books and Movies program. First up is "Voices in Conflict," a film of a production of a play centering on letters written by men and women serving in Iraq. The play was performed off-campus by a Wilton High School theater class after education officials there deemed it too controversial and banned the class from doing it in school. The program begins at 2 p.m.
The play, said Krikorian, was "the object of censorship, provoking a public discourse of the value and purpose of our First Amendment rights.
"It's interesting," she added, "to find out why people take a stand on books. But I'm not the judge of that.
"We are a library and it is for us to provide information to the public. That's why a library exists, as a depository of information and ideas."
Banned Books Week was instituted by the American Library Association as an annual event "celebrating the freedom to read," according to the organization." It occurs annually the last week in September.
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