I am not tolerant of censors and their arrogant holier-than-thou attitude, usually rooted in their wingnut religious beliefs, that they — based on their very own personal knowledge of God’s wisdom, granted to them while alone communing with bears and aliens in the woods — know what’s best for us . . . even better than we do, ourselves.

So it is with joy in my heart that I bring you this story of would-be book-burners in West Bend, Wisconsin, and their foiled attempt to have this fantasy novel —

— removed from the shelves. (Make sure you read all the comments — hilarious!) Oh, that’s not stopping them from suing the city; but I have a feeling the members of the almighty Christian Civil Liberties Union will soon find that they are the chief conductors of the loser train. Thank you to the writers and protectors of the First Amendment. Here’s a more detailed story to go along with the first.

Over in Pennsylvania, we have another library story — this one about an anonymous bureaucrat who decided a seven-year old patron and uber-reader had to have his library card revoked simply because he lived across the town’s border. Giving him the card was a mistake made by the library initially, and although they could have left well enough alone, they revoked the kid’s card — thereby making a much bigger PR mistake. Here’s the story. For what it’s worth, I’d like to send the kid a $50 gift card to Barnes and Noble.

And for a third round of stories about bloodsuckers, here’s a cool piece from Salon about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and three series on bookshelves that owe a lot to Joss Whedon. And to The Joy of Sex.