Book burnings have been a reaction to the power of the written word, and governments have taken it upon themselves to ban books. However, such bans have been a hallmark of the past, with civilization's bloody history marked by the destruction of books and their ideas.

Historically speaking, there are usually three big reasons books are banned: Religion, morality, and politics. Back in the BCE era, entire ideas, religions, and political movements were wiped out.

Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is, according to Literary Professor Nicholas Frankel, 'one of the first novels in the English language to explore the nature of homoerotic and homosexual desire'.

Comstock most typically engaged in 'direct censorship' when he seized and destroyed materials to prevent their public circulation. Direct censorship in any society, no matter how repressive, is just one means through which discourse is limited.

The United States v. One Book Called Ulysses in 1933 and R v Penguin Books in 1960 were two legal cases that realign the conversation in a different direction. Today, the US Supreme Court defines obscenity as something that lacks 'serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value'.

Banned Books Week was started in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Judith Krug, one of the founders of Banned Books Week, emphasized the importance of intellectual freedom and the need to provide access to all information and ideas.