Next week is Banned Books Week.
Back in 2001, I started something called the Banned Books Project. It started out as a little addition to my blog and before I knew it, the thing grew to major proportions. Tons of people wrote essays on their favorite banned books or on book banning in general. I ran it for two years (here’s the archive of the 2002 site) and in 2002 we dis something called the One Sentence project, where people would, in one sentence, try to convince others to read a banned book.
That was one of the most inspiring projects I ever took on. I was amazed at how many people supported and contributed to the site. Even the ALA linked to the project and helped me out with ideas.
I would love to do something like that again, but I think the internet is a much different place than it was in 2001 and 2002. People are more spread out over different communities. Then, bloggers kind of stuck together and supported each other’s projects and I’m not saying people don’t do that now, but the sheer number of people blogging/tumbling/whatevering is so great that the really cool projects tend to get lost in between all the This Is Why You’re Fat kind of thing.
I’m feeling pulled by forces I want to ignore. I would love to start something up. I want to feel that energy again, the energy that comes from a collective of people doing something positive and creative together. I want to feel that high you get when a collaboration go from idea to success.
I don’t want anything out of it except the joy I feel from bringing something to other people. I’ve started a lot of big projects - Trooptrax, Kids for Katrina, Voices of 9/11 - and the feeling I got when people joined the projects with me, when a little idea turned into a huge collaboration - well, I miss that feeling. I miss being involved in something bigger than me, the excitement that comes with getting a project off the ground. But, do I have time for something like this now? Should I make the time for it?
Anyhow, I got off track and I really wanted to say something about Banned Books Week and I need to put out the fire that is starting to burn in my brain about this. NO TIME FOR PROJECTS, DR. JONES.
This is great - in a former life I worked as a reference librarian, and banned books week was always fun for me. I loved watching people react to the great (and let’s be honest, not so great) stuff that gets banned for seemingly random reasons.
