Atlanta, GA
How independent bookstores help in the fight against book banning and why it matters
Jan Bolgla and Bob Roarty have owned and operated Atlanta Classic Books for greater than 16 years.
Fernando Alfonso III/NPR
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Fernando Alfonso III/NPR
Jan Bolgla and Bob Roarty have owned and operated Atlanta Classic Books for greater than 16 years.
Fernando Alfonso III/NPR
BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — The graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Younger Lady was the final guide Jan Bolgla anticipated to see yanked off public library cabinets within the 16 years since she and her husband purchased a used bookstore crammed with cats, paintings and, as of this previous week, a banned guide part.
Bolgla shared this somber statement on the eve of Banned Books Week whereas petting Massive Boo, a Maine Coon rescue purring atop a glass case filled with uncommon books. Close to the shop’s entrance was a bookshelf Bolgla’s sister-in-law Michele Bolgla had stocked with Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, George Orwell’s 1984 and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher within the Rye, every of which have been or are at the moment banned in components of the U.S.
That is the second yr Bolgla and her retailer have participated in Banned Books Week, which ran from Sept. 18 by way of Saturday, out of pure necessity and solidarity, she mentioned.
One of many everlasting fixtures of Atlanta Classic Books has been its household of stray cats, together with Massive Boo.
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Fernando Alfonso III/NPR
One of many everlasting fixtures of Atlanta Classic Books has been its household of stray cats, together with Massive Boo.
Fernando Alfonso III/NPR
“We’re very into books being a spot of information, and sharing data, and banning books and censorship is absolutely one thing we really feel strongly about,” Bolgla, 66, mentioned.
“There shouldn’t be censorship,” she mentioned. “… Booksellers are fortunate, as a result of we get to promote no matter we wish to promote. So we are able to promote the banned books, however what they’re doing to colleges and libraries, for that era developing, not having the ability to expertise range as a lot and seeing it as a nasty factor, we really feel very strongly that it isn’t the proper solution to go.”
A part of a small rebel
Bolgla’s retailer, Atlanta Classic Books, is one in every of a whole lot of impartial bookstores throughout the nation which have celebrated the liberty to learn this week at a time when faculties, universities and public libraries face what specialists say are unprecedented makes an attempt to ban or limit studying supplies.
The U.S. is on observe to see the variety of guide challenges exceed these in 2021, the American Library Affiliation mentioned in a information launch.
Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31 this yr, the ALA mentioned it recorded 681 makes an attempt to ban or limit library assets, and 1,651 distinctive titles had been focused. In all of 2021, there have been 729 makes an attempt to censor library assets, focusing on 1,597 books — “the very best variety of tried guide bans since ALA started compiling these lists greater than 20 years in the past,” the group mentioned.
The irony of books like Fahrenheit 451 being banned in components of the U.S. is just not misplaced on the house owners of Atlanta Classic Books. Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel tells the story of a future the place books have been outlawed in society.
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The irony of books like Fahrenheit 451 being banned in components of the U.S. is just not misplaced on the house owners of Atlanta Classic Books. Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel tells the story of a future the place books have been outlawed in society.
Fernando Alfonso III/NPR
Impartial shops like Bolgla’s have a vital position to play in offering bodily entry to books in states like Texas, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Georgia the place public libraries are below menace of censorship, mentioned Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Workplace for Mental Freedom.
“Booksellers are dedicated to free entry to info and so they have their very own advocacy group to guard their freedom to supply info to their communities, make books obtainable of their communities,” Caldwell-Stone advised NPR. “I feel booksellers are a significant a part of the ecology of studying and entry to info.”
Banned Books Week is likely one of the most vital methods to counter banning makes an attempt and to provide voice to those that have been marginalized for a lot too lengthy, mentioned Ray Daniels, chief communications officer for the American Booksellers Affiliation. And but regardless of the independence afforded to the ABA’s greater than 2,000 members unfold throughout 2,500 places, some haven’t been resistant to censorship, Daniels advised NPR.
“We hear from our impartial bookstore members that these sorts of makes an attempt at censorship are spilling over into bookstores, with prospects complaining if a retailer carries a guide that they do not like. We firmly imagine a bookstore has a proper to curate its retailer because it sees match,” he mentioned.
This concern was additionally echoed by Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and teaching programs at PEN America.
“I feel it is solely a matter of time earlier than there may be extra stress positioned on impartial booksellers, as effectively,” Friedman advised NPR.
“I feel democracy is much more fragile,” he mentioned. “I feel the safety of freedoms that we’ve got to promote books, purchase books, learn books, write books, I feel these rights are much more fragile than individuals may have imagined lately and brought as a right. And now we’re seeing what occurs after we begin to chip away at these rights.”
A lifetime price of ink of their veins
Every day since buying Atlanta Classic Books has been an journey, Bob Roarty, 69, mentioned.
Some days, these adventures contain holding a signed first version of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, revealed in 1939, whereas others have concerned gazing upon a signed copy of Charles Dickens’ Arduous Instances, revealed in 1854.
The love Roarty and Bolgla have for books has been nurtured for greater than a half-century between them; the previous as a printer and the latter as a designer. At one time, the couple owned a publishing firm known as Drury Lane Publishers.
“We love books, we love the texture of books. We love how they’re made,” Bolgla mentioned. “We’re avid readers. I feel Bob is a quick reader. I am a gradual reader.”
The couple bought the shop in 2006 after recognizing a for-sale advert in an area Atlanta paper, Bolgla mentioned. They noticed the shop as a solution to escape the limitless deadlines each confronted of their skilled lives, Bolgla mentioned.
A have a look at the signal outdoors Atlanta Classic Books in Brookhaven, Ga.
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Fernando Alfonso III/NPR
A have a look at the signal outdoors Atlanta Classic Books in Brookhaven, Ga.
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“We thought, if we do not attempt it, we’ll remorse it. And if we’ve got to sleep within the basement, we’ll sleep within the basement of the shop,” Bolgla mentioned. “We each have the identical philosophy about loving books, desirous to attempt it. And transferring on to one thing new. And we had type of no concept what we had been about to do.”
No matter doubt the pair as soon as had is not obvious. Final yr marked the perfect for Atlanta Classic Books and the shop is at the moment on tempo this yr to match or exceed that, Bolgla mentioned. Banned Books Week has factored into this success, for higher or worse, Michele Bolgla mentioned.
“There may be a lot concern and ignorance on the planet now, the idea of protecting data away from individuals is extra scary than ever,” she added. “I’m reminded of my favourite quote, from one of many most-banned authors, Ray Bradbury: ‘You do not have to burn books to destroy a tradition. Simply get individuals to cease studying them.’ “