Every victory for the freedom to read begins with a courageous community of advocates. Whether you show up to a school board meeting, report censorship, donate or take other actions, you are part of a powerful movement to protect the right to read. In our Freedom to Read Advocate Spotlight series, we celebrate our advocates by sharing their stories, motivations, and what drives them to fight against censorship.
Bob Sommer is a Unite Against Book Bans supporter and a co-owner of Changing Hands, Arizona’s leading independent bookstore. In Tempe since 1974, Changing Hands opened a second location in central Phoenix in 2014. This second location is home to Changing Hands’ First Draft Book Bar, one of a small handful “book bars” in the U.S. that serve wine, beer, and coffee drinks in addition to book and event offerings. To keep up with all things Changing Hands, visit changinghands.com or connect with them on Facebook or Instagram.
PHOTO: The ”Banned Bookstore” display at Changing Hands in 2025.
What is a book that’s important to you and why?
As the co-owner of an independent bookstore for 51 years, many books are deeply meaningful to me. Some are: All is Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, Middlemarch by George Eliot, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.
Why you believe we need to speak up for the freedom to read?
Limiting the freedom to read— whether the targeted materials are fiction, non-fiction, or journalism in printed or digital format— is a gateway to totalitarian restriction of other freedoms, including the freedom of speech and assembly.
I believe that the current movement’s focus on banning picture books, early readers, chapter books, middle readers, tween and teen books is the precursor to banning any books that an autocratic regime deems unfit. We must all unite against the dangerous movement to ban books in libraries and schools.
Why did you donate to Unite Against Book Bans?
Resistance to an authoritarian takeover requires freedom-loving people to join together, to organize, and to form coalitions that work to return power to the people through non-violent resistance and massive non-cooperation. Joining and supporting Unite Against Book Bans is an excellent step along the path to restoring our full constitutional and human rights.