Students from the First Amendment Tutorial held a Banned Book Readout celebrating their freedom to read and the 30th anniversary of the American Library Association’s Banned Book Week on Wednesday.

They read excerpts from the “Twilight” series, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “The Hunger Games,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “Tarzan of the Apes,” all of which have been banned, to students outside of Manzanita Hall and then inside of the Matador Bookstore Complex.

“I think it’s really cool,” said Marco Gramago, 19, sophomore civil engineering major. “You always hear people talk about banned books but you never hear people reading them.”

Dr. Elizabeth E. Martinez, who helped organize the readout, said that books have been banned from either libraries or school boards due to inappropriate content, rape, sexualiy and other subjects that people don’t want to talk about.

“Honestly, I don’t see why its a big deal,” said Rayne Vasquez, 23, senior CTVA major. “You can ban a book but people are still going to read it. Its not like they are burning them.”