Time to crack open the taboo pages

It’s time to read.

To be more specific, it’s time to read something seditious — it’s Banned Books Week.

Organized by groups including the American Library Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the American Booksellers Association, the event is designed to celebrate the First Amendment and the freedom to read. Running through Oct. 2, the main events are hosted in Chicago, but nationwide celebrations of the power of literature are going on at bookstores and libraries across the country.

Launched in 1982, the Banned Books Week works to ensure that all books avoid censorship of any kind. The featured books have all been banned at some point or another in their publication history, for “sexual content” or for simply being offensive to certain areas. Some of the works include Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, J.D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye and more recent works like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.