To commemorate Banned Books Week, the Internet Archive has opened access to 74 banned books which can be downloaded for free in different formats such as PDF, HTML and sometimes ePUB and Kindle formats. The Banned Books Week is celebrated in the last week of September every year, and this year, it stretches from September 25 to October 2. Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign that celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals. It highlights the importance of The First Amendment in the USA and draws attention to the harms of censorship worldwide.
Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and they protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups–or positive portrayals of homosexuals. Their targets range from books that explore contemporary issues and controversies to classic and beloved works of literature. — bannedbooksweek.org
Banned or censored books in different topics such as evolution, literature, fiction, freedom, economics and a number of children books have been made available. The books can be downloaded for free and read on a computer, laptop or portable devices such as Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad.
