ACLU sponsors banned-book reading at Carnegie Library

Someone walking through the double doors of the Carnegie Library auditorium Monday evening… Someone walking through the double doors of the Carnegie Library auditorium Monday evening would have been greeted by chairs, a standing lamp and a coffee table with books stacked on top.

That furniture was what greeted anyone who came to the 11th Annual Banned Books reading at the library. Each book on the list was notorious in its own right for being banned throughout the world.

As the lights dimmed, the audience focused their attention toward the center of the room. This was the sign that their wait had finally come to an end.

Hosted in the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, Lynn Cullen attempted to take a fairly nonchalant and, at times, satirical approach to present each reader throughout the night.

One of her early comments, “Anyone call to ban Bill O’Reilly’s recent book?” drew a roar from the crowd and set the mood for the night.

There were clips of people reading quotes from banned books, all relating to the freedom of speech and the analogous right to read freely.

Some of the novels mentioned included “The Great Gatsby,” “1984,” “Fences,” “Moby Dick,” “The Vagina Monologues” and a number of other well-known banned novels.

Comedic readers kept the audience entertained. One reader, Harish Saluja, kept the audience amused with a story of his childhood in India.

He told of his search for pornography and his unforeseen run-in with a book that changed his life. The novel he read, “An Area of Darkness” by V.S. Naipaul, was banned throughout India but allowed Saluja to express a powerful and extremely significant point.

“I am short, bald and ugly but (this book showed me that) there is a chance for self-improvement,” he said. He then powerfully noted that “Calling your president an asshole is a good sign, because other countries don’t allow it.”

The theme of freedom of speech was the major point he tried to illustrate in comparison to India, trying to emphasize the freedoms that Americans take for granted on a daily basis.

Reader Sala Udin began his reading by exclaiming that “When I write my book, I want it banned,” expressing that a majority of these books became so infamous because of the simple fact that they were banned.

The American Civil Liberties Union organized the event.