I’m not sure why they picked me exactly, I’m guessing it’s for the book I was holding. Either that or they really like fluorescent lighting, over there at The Nation.

Many more attractive library staff than I are featured with more classical examples of banned and challenged books. Most of the “good ones” were already taken by the time I got in on the project. In fact, another librarian is seen in the series with the very same copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook, on a table, as if to say “I will begin smashing this bigoted power structure right after I finish ‘Song of Solomon.’”

I halfway thought about posing with a copy of Howard Stern’s autobiography, featured on the ALA list, but I gave my copy away years ago and wasn’t sure I even wanted to be seen with a naked portrait of the King of All Media. Then I discovered that we keep a copy of the Cookbook tucked away on the seventh floor of the Hatcher. So I dashed upstairs and got the presiding Special Collections librarian to snap the photo.

The page I am reading was some kind of recipe for homemade soup. It’s not just a title, there are actual cooking recipes in the Anarchist’s Cookbook, which intrigues me. I probably know most of the homemade weapons instructions already from the Internet anyway.

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