Dua Lipa’s ‘Banned Books’ Library Misses the Point

Pop singer Dua Lipa recently launched the “Manifesto Library” with 100 books at the Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto, Portugal. “The Manifesto Library is a space dedicated to books that challenge power, resist censorship, and amplify the voices that others seek to silence,” said the official account of Lipa’s book club. A full list of works in Lipa’s library is available in Cosmopolitan, which states, “All of the titles were once banned or censored.”

Funnily enough, those “banned or censored” books are easily purchased today — and not only at the Porto shop. Here are some of the Manifesto Library’s supposed contraband that I currently have on my shelves in my apartment: 1) Animal Farm by George Orwell, 2) Beloved by Toni Morrison, 3) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 4) Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, 5) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 6) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, 7) The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, 8) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 9) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, 10) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, 11) The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, and 12) The Vegetarian by Han Kang. I have read some of the other titles, like Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Miller’s The Crucible, but I don’t own them. I vaguely remember slogging through Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God in school; had it not been assigned, I would have dropped it. There are other books in Lipa’s collection that I refuse to buy, either because they are ideological propaganda or just simply bad quality: 1) Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, 2) Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, 3) This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson, and 4) Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.

About the Author

Abigail Anthony

Abigail Anthony is a staff writer at National Review.

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Pop singer Dua Lipa recently launched the “Manifesto Library” with 100 books at the Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto, Portugal. “The Manifesto Library is a space dedicated to books that challenge power, resist censorship, and amplify the voices that others seek to silence,” said the official account of Lipa’s book club. A full list of works in Lipa’s library is available in Cosmopolitan, which states, “All of the titles were once banned or censored.”

Funnily enough, those “banned or censored” books are easily purchased today — and not only at the Porto shop. Here are some of the Manifesto Library’s supposed contraband that I currently have on my shelves in my apartment: 1) Animal Farm by George Orwell, 2) Beloved by Toni Morrison, 3) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 4) Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, 5) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 6) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, 7) The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, 8) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 9) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, 10) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, 11) The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, and 12) The Vegetarian by Han Kang. I have read some of the other titles, like Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Miller’s The Crucible, but I don’t own them. I vaguely remember slogging through Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God in school; had it not been assigned, I would have dropped it. There are other books in Lipa’s collection that I refuse to buy, either because they are ideological propaganda or just simply bad quality: 1) Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, 2) Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, 3) This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson, and 4) Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.