reading can be a vice

How to Defend Books and Why

Danny Caine

Listen on Audiobook

You're invited to the book revolution!

Fight back against censorship and empower your community with this close look at the book banning movement.

In a moving, compulsively readable call to arms for readers everywhere, Danny Caine, bestselling author of How to Resist Amazon and Why and How to Protect Bookstores and Why, offers an expertly-crafted confrontation of far-right, Christian nationalist attempts to reshape American culture through ban campaigns targeting schools, libraries, bookstores, and prisons, with the aim to silence marginalized identities in life and in literature.

From the first-ever banned books display at San Francisco's City Lights in the 1950s to the rapid rise of so-called Moms For Liberty during the COVID-19 pandemic to attempts to silence Palestinian authors, Caine charts the course of repressive censorship campaigns, along with the creative and sometimes unlikely activists who've stood up against them.

Each chapter is based on a particular book banning episode, bolstered by research and legal precedent, and concludes with helpful takeaways for further reading or resistance.

Throughout, Caine approaches these heated issues with gentle openness harkening back to his work as a public school teacher and a bookseller.

He emphasizes our collective responsibility towards art, free speech, and each other.

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.

I talk a lot about using your local library, and as a person with a fantastic local library, I am privileged in that push. Unfortunately, it has become apparent in the new year that the budget for audiobooks has shifted. Whether due to inflation, changes in funding, or something else, my local library has not been buying as many audiobooks, which affects me as an audiobook reader deeply.

The secondary service I rely on after the library is, without a doubt, Libro.fm. So, if you want to help me get access to more books, and also enjoy an audiobook service I genuinely believe in, check out my referral link. If you use it, I get credits, which I use to expand my digital library when the library rejects my suggestions.

Here is my referral link:

The queer liberation library (QLL) is a huge library of queer and trans books and audiobooks. The library covers queer/trans non-fiction histories, memoirs, YA, mature novels, etc. They're hosted on Libby and can be accessed for free via your browser with an email address. The account is free, no charge at all.

You can borrow books as you would with a regular library and return them when you're done. Unfortunately, some are rather popular.

Here are some books if you want to learn more about trans history and culture:

Black on Both Sides by C. Riley Snorton (E-book, Audiobook ver. 1, Audiobook ver. 2)

Introduction to Transgender Studies by Ardel Haefele-Thomas and Thatcher Combs (E-book)

We Both Laughed In Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan edited by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozama (E-book)

Working Guys: A Transmasculine Sex Worker Anthology by Jack V. Parker (E-book)

Before Gender by Eli Erlick (E-book)

A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States by Carolyn Wolf-Gould and Dallas Denny (E-book)

So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro De Robertis (Audiobook)

Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution by Susan Stryker (Audiobook)

Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Dr. Kit Heyam (Audiobook)

You Are On Native Land collects stories and art donated by some of comics' biggest Indigenous creators such as Jon Proudstar, Maria Wolf, and Steph Littlebird. Tales of Native resistance; family and kinship; love and grief fill this beautiful collection, which includes a special reprint of TRIBAL FORCE #1, credited as the first comic to feature a superhero team made up entirely of Indigenous heroes.

GUYS THIS COMES OUT SEPTEMBER 2026 I NEED EVERYONE TO PULL THIS IT LOOKS SO PEAK