Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
New Study Explores the Impact of Book Bans on Library Circulation
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon and George Mason University have published a new study about the impact of book bans on the consumption of banned books, and the results might surprise you. Using book circulation data from a “large library content and services supplies to major public and academic libraries in the United States” about the top 25 most-banned titles, found that:
- Book bans increase the circulation of banned books by 12% compared to a control group. That is, book bans lead to a Streisand effect rather than having a chilling effect on readership.
- The effect spills over to states without bans and is only slighlty lower (11.2% increase).
- The increase in readership centers on books related to race, gender, and LGTBQ+ issues.
- Book bans expose new readers to inclusive content; on average, children read banned books 19% more than the control titles after a book banning event.
- Circulation of banned books increases in red states that have book bans and in blue states regardless of book ban status.
(This feels like a good time to remind you that, regardless of circulation and readership numbers, book bans are not good for authors. If you’re working on a “well, actually” with a positive spin about book bans, just stop.)
The findings above might lead you to wonder: if book bans are driving increased engagement with the very content activists claim to be trying to protect children from, why do they continue to pursue book bans? Follow the money. The study also looked at political messaging and donations and found that Republican politicians in red states saw an estimated 30% increase in donations under $500 after book ban events.
One more time for the folks in the back: it’s not about the books. As Book Riot’s Kelly Jensen reminds us, “books are an easy, on-the-ground, tangible target” that far-right groups have used as a thin end of the wedge in their pursuit of suppressing representations of and information about race and LGBTQ+ issues. Does it matter to conservative politicians that kids are actually reading more banned books? Not if their coffers are full and their voters are turning out.
It’s Been Five Years Since American Dirt, and We’re Still Salty
Five years ago, Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt went from being the biggest book of the season to being the biggest controversy in publishing. Like, so big that she had to do a whole Oprah sit-down about it. Here’s Vanessa with a great piece on what happened with American Dirt and why it still stings.
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