Enjoy Freedom to Read Week!

Happy Family Day, my fellow Ontarians!

I hope you had a good day with your family and friends if you were able to get together.

I want to remind you that this week (February 20-26, 2011) is Freedom to Read Week (http://www.freedomtoread.ca/) and to encourage you to enjoy a good book if you can.

Unfortunately, reading is a freedom and right that not everyone has. However, it is one that we should not take for granted.

Reading both educates and entertains. It transports us to different worlds and time periods and teaches us wonderful things. It is also more active than watching television and truly challenges and exercises our minds.

Two of my favourite banned books are D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. I commend the authors for having written about the important issues of sexuality and racism in an intelligent and provocative way. They depicted the reality of the time and were unapologetic about it, which makes their classics ones that everyone should read.

I say we be unapologetic as we read and enjoy the many wonderful books of the past and present.

Life is short, so what are you waiting for?

Dahlia