MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) — Brendon Donoho loves the library but never imagined he would end up starting his own.
“I just thought, what is it, four books,” he said. “I mean I can just give those four books to people if they want them.”
After Murfreesboro’s city council voted to pass a new decency ordinance back in June, books began being challenged and removed from Rutherford County library shelves for violating the new law.
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“There is a leadership class of people and they make a lot of political points by finding small groups of vulnerable people and picking on them,” said Donoho.
When Donoho heard what was going on he decided to do something. He launched borobannedbooks.com. It’s an online library currently containing the four books banned from the Rutherford County Library system that he’ll deliver to residents for free.
“That was the first goal, was to set this infrastructure up so that as soon as a book is banned…I’ll go buy a copy on Amazon, add it [and] it’s fixed,” said Donoho.
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While running a library was never in his plans, he believes this is needed for those who won’t have access to these books.
“I hate the idea that a young kid just figuring out who they are has to be in a fight, and has to be so complicated for them,” said Donoho.
Donoho is certain more books will continue to be challenged and possibly banned, but he hopes his library can be a place where those books and potential readers find each other.
“I want people who need this information and want to see these books to be able to see them,” he said. “So it feels good to know I can easily…we can easily meet that need as a community [and] work around whatever kind of nonsense is going on.”
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Donoho said he’s working to find local businesses that would act as drop-off points for these books.
He hopes this idea can expand and other communities across Middle Tennessee will consider launching something similar.