Week 11: Reading Week

Identity week was an awesome week. I feel like God is slowly working on me and showing me how He sees me. I had a conversation with my friend the other night, and it was great yet quite convicting. God has done some amazing things in her life, and I want that for my life too. She is becoming comfortable with herself, and she's seeing herself as God sees her. She has taken time to sit there with God in the stillness and listen to what He's saying. I need to do that more often. I will admit that I have a hard time sitting still and listening, resting, abiding in Him. The thing is, I could talk about how I want to grow and be stretched and how I want to develop into the woman God created me to be, but if I don't stop and take the time to be with God then nothing will happen. God has told me to abide in Him; now I need to listen and do just that.

Now onto Week 11 which is reading week. When I was at Trinity going to college, every October they had reading weekend, and we'd get a Friday off to, well, read. I will admit that I very rarely used that Friday to read, but now that I'm "grown up" I want to take that time to read. And it just so happens that this week is "Banned Books Week." Check out this website for more detailed info about this week: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/info.html

The website explains: "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. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982...Their targets range from books that explore contemporary issues and controversies to classic and beloved works of American literature."

Honestly, there is a part of me that thinks that certain books maybe shouldn't be put in elementary or middle school libraries depending on the type of content, but I see no reason in banning books from bookstores and libraries. I was shocked when I actually saw the top 10 books that were challenged in 2009. As the week goes on, I will update my blog every so often with different books that were banned, reasons for being banned, and I will use this week to get back into my love for reading. After work today, I'm heading to the library to see if they have the book "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," which is listed #3 on the American Library Association's Top 10 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009. I'm feeling rebellious....this is going to be fun : )