Free Talk Live

We live in a world where the answer to everything -- from oil, to overdue student loans, to past-due library books -- is to send men with guns. Jeeezus help us.

Banned Books Week is celebrating its 30th anniversary – because, well, people are still trying to remove Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird from library shelves.

But there’s also plenty that’s new for Banned Books Week 2012 (September 30 to October 6). Here’s a rundown...

(AP) ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A New Mexico woman was arrested and spent a night in jail for not returning the book "Twilight" and two-DVD set "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" back to the library on time. The Albuquerque Journal reports Lori Teel was arrested and handcuffed at her Portales home in front of her five small children...for the $36 worth of library materials

A longtime Colorado judge has been fired after issuing an arrest warrant for a teenager over an overdue library DVD.

Municipal Judge James Kimmel issued the warrant after 19-year-old Aaron Henson failed to show up in court Jan. 14 over the overdue DVD, "House of Flying Daggers." On Jan. 25, police stoped the teen for speeding and held him for nearly eight hours after discovering the warrant.

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — A longtime Colorado judge has been fired after issuing an arrest warrant for a teenager over an overdue library DVD.

Atlanta (WAOK)– A trial date has been set for a 20-year-old single mother who was arrested after her son made laughing noises while in a Decatur library.

The Hunger Games movie may not have had trouble earning a PG-13 rating, but many parents and educators are wondering whether the best-selling book trilogy belongs on library shelves.

The top five most challenged books of 2011 are:

1) ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
2) The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
3) The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
4) My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
5) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

Library of Congress is archiving for posterity every public tweet made since the service went live back in 2006. Every. Single. Tweet.

This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.

The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Orwell. And the books were “1984” and “Animal Farm.”