Banned Books Week is coming up in a few short weeks, and before it arrives, I feel like it's my responsibility to give my two cents. Because while all the books on this list are controversial, "vulgar," violent, and potentially "obscene," they also represent the pillars of an ideal society. That statement seems confusing and contradictory, I know. But the truth of the matter is that banned books show us who we are as individuals, who we are as a community, who we could be, who we should be, who we were, who we can never become again, who our friends and neighbors are and everything in between.