(photo: wkipedia.org)

This is Banned Books Week, that annual opportunity to contemplate the perils of censorship, with Huckleberry Finn right up there as an exemplar of that folly. Here are some ways to make this national event significant in your own reading life.

Publisher Hachette provides a list of its banned and challenged books (including The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Naked by David Sedaris, The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger, and, yes, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird). On its Facebook page, author Janet Fitch has posted a picture of herself with her favorite banned book—Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer—and invites others to do the same.

Similarly, Simon & Schuster’s call for Twitter users to photograph themselves with their favorite banned book has led to a collection of cute pictures with the hashtag #BannedBookSelfie. (1984, Animal Farm, The Hunger Games, Perks of Being a Wallflower). Last month I gave my friend J a bracelet made up of covers of banned books—she should tweet a picture wearing it!

Macmillan has seemingly thrown together a webpage for the week that showcases its twitter feed and features rotating anti-censorship quotes from people as varied as Dwight Eisenhower and Lemony Snicket. It also includes nice descriptions of two of its formerly banned books—The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander and Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden.

The Huffington Post asked teachers whether they include any banned books in their classes, and, if so, why, using the #TeachBannedBooks hashtag, which has received an enormous Twitter response.

An epicenter of BBW activities is The American Library Association and its Office for Intellectual Freedom. Its staff created a 50 State Salute, with YouTube videos from each state showing how Banned Books Week is celebrated locally with Read-a-Thons and other activities.