There’s a certain thrill to reading a book that you know has been banned in a particular school, library, or in some cases entire country. This is recognised each year by the American Library Association during Banned Books Week at the end of September, aiming to celebrate the freedom of reading and challenge book censorship.

Books are restricted, banned or complained about for various reasons – bad language, mature content and violence being the main ones.  During Banned Books Week the ALA releases the previous year’s list of the most challenged titles. Here are some that appeared on the 2011 list.

Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Betrayed by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Click any title to place a hold and see what all the fuss is about.

On a more local note, earlier this year a literary historian discovered thousands of banned books buried within the National Archives of Australia building in Sydney. There were 793 boxes of them and they’d been banned for various reasons between the 1920s and 1980s! Read the article here.