OK, so she had a point. And Iâ??m sure the Halton District Catholic School Board does, too. But I still canâ??t stop thinking about how one of the banned titles, The Golden Compass, was voted the best childrenâ??s book of the last 70 years not that long ago. That means kids â?? a lot of kids â?? are reading Pullmanâ??s books. Not sitting in front of an Xbox or a TV set with glazed zombie-like eyeballs, or roaming the streets unattended. Reading. And the same can be said of the Harry Potter books, which inspire frenzied lineups of kids at bookstores and a Beatlemania level of devotion in young readers.

I was that way, too, when my mom introduced my brother and me to C.S. Lewisâ??s Chronicles of Narnia books. She would read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe aloud to us at night, and we never once stopped to think about whether the books were religious or too dark. Mostly, we just loved the weird, talking Narnia creatures and the adventures Lucy and Edmund had on the other side of that wardrobe, and we hungered to find out what happened next. That early experience fostered my young bookworm self, as I read ahead at nights, too impatient to wait for my mom and brother to find out just how the series would end. Isnâ??t that a good thing?

And those are the just books from my childhood. I took a few minutes to look up online lists of other literary works that have been banned or challenged in their time, and itâ??s a pretty impressive array of titles: Lolita, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, A Dollâ??s House, The Catcher in the Rye, King Learâ?¦ these are only a few of the books I found on a list that ran 10 pages long!

All of these works had a huge impact on me (or at the very least, made me excited about words and writing) at certain key moments in my life, and I canâ??t imagine what it would have been like if someone at my school had decided for me that I wasnâ??t allowed to read them.

And lest I sound too one-sided about all of this, I also spent some time today trying to remember if Iâ??ve ever encountered a book that I felt was offensive enough to be deemed ban-worthy.

I came close once, with American Psycho. When it was released, to great public and media outcry, way back in 1991, I remember feeling completely torn. Here was a book, by an author Iâ??d previously liked, that reportedly contained scenes of torture, mutilation, and violence against women.

I thought about American Psycho a lot at that time. I read about the publisherâ??s defense of it, about how the president of one chapter of the National Organization for Women was proposing a boycott of the title, about how some bookstores were refusing to stock the novel. And you know what I finally decided? I chose not to read the book.

It was that simple.

Thatâ??s why this banning business has me so fired up. Because one of the joys of reading for me has always been about being able to choose which amazing fictional world Iâ??m going to explore next. While I fully believe I have the right to ignore a book that doesnâ??t adhere to my values, I also canâ??t stand the thought of some other bookworm being denied the chance to write his/her thesis on why American Psycho is actually a brilliant satire of â??80s life.

I guess it boils down to this: when faced with the question to ban or not to ban, my answer is always the same. I choose books.

Thatâ??s my two centsâ?? worth, but I know this is a heated topic, and one that warrants further debate and discussion. Do you agree with the Halton District Catholic School Boardâ??s decision? Ever read a banned book that disturbed you? Or changed your life? Iâ??m curious to hear your thoughts on this one, so please feel free to e-mail me at canadareads@cbc.ca.