Banned Books: Suggested Reading

Hii! I haven’t posted in a while, with school starting and all the studying ever, but since this was banned books week I thought I’d take some time to make a post:)

This photo I made reminds me of the novel Suggested Reading, by Dave Connis. It’s about Clara, a girl whose life is defined by the books she reads. She soon realizes that some of the books that have impacted her life are banned at her school and that there’s an ever-growing list of “restricted media,” or banned books at her school.

“There was literally no nook or cranny of my life that hadn’t been guided by a book, and, for the most part, it had been an uninterrupted journey.”

She tries and fails to reason with the principal about the banned books list, and decides to fight back in her own way. She starts the Unlib, an “underground” library in her locker. She lends people books unavailable in the library because they are banned. Clara asks people to write what they thought or their favorite quotes from it on the white covers she uses for the banned books.

“We bring ourselves to the pages. Our whole selves. Every single darkness. Every single light.Every single passion.Every single hurt. We read with all the layers that make us who we are acting as filters. We read with all that our eyes have seen and all that our hearts have felt since birth.”

However, when she recommends a book to someone, it sets off a series of unpredictable events that lead to an unexpected tragedy, and Clara starts to question the impact of certain books on people’s lives and why some books are banned. She starts to doubt herself and whether the Unlib was a good idea, and she wonders whether sometimes the power of the narrative is too much.

“I wondered for the first time what reason someone could’ve had to say [books] weren’t good for me. I’d felt off about the Unlib from the day it started because I’d never questioned books before. I’d always thought that if it was book-shaped, it was good.”

Suggested Reading doesn’t just blindly assert that all books are “good,” and it makes you think about the benefits and potential ramifications of reading an impactful book. However, it ends with the message that you have the freedom to choose what you read, and that people should have access to any book they want, and decide for themselves whether or not to read it (which I completely agree with).

“Push back. Don’t just accept things. Time doesn’t change things. Humans change things. Time adapts.”

You should definitely read this book, because not only is it the perfect book during banned books week, but it’s also a book that will make you fall in love with the magic of reading all over again:)

I chose this photo since the darkness surrounding and starting to swallow the book shows the dangers of restricting what we can read. It represents people being less able to think for themselves and accessing only information given to them, not what they really want. The book fading into the darkness shows the way stories will be forgotten and information will be lost with more books banned.

“As soon as I saw the bookshelves through the store windows, I felt lighter. Just thinking about the smell inside. Paper, compressed nature, and hands making words, a must of knowing and magic. Periods. Commas. Digressions. Analogies. The beauty of everyday thought turned poetry. It was all there, and I was hit with a little sliver of peace in the chaos of my brain.”

I made this photo using Polarr, and changed it so it was black and white and had a dark vignette around it covering the edges of the book.

I’ll leave you with my favorite quote:

“In those seconds it felt like all the words and magic in the universe converged right where I stood, telling me the told and untold stories of bravery, strength, hope, and hurt. Whispering in my ears that there were still so many books, choices, and changes that hadn’t yet dared to disturb the universe.”

Thank you for reading! 🥰

With this blog, I plan to share the photos and videos I’ve made with you and tie them to books I’ve read. Let me know what you think!