Many countries throughout the world have their own methods of restricting access to books, although the prohibitions vary strikingly from one country to another. In many territories, distribution, promotion, or certain translations of the Bible have historically been prohibited or impeded. Russian literature prohibited during the Soviet period was published outside of Russia. Ruedo ibérico, also located in Paris, specialized in books prohibited in Spain during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Both of these, the work of father Jack Kahane and son Maurice Girodias, specialized in English-language books which were prohibited, at the time, in Great Britain and the United States. The best-known examples are the Parisian Obelisk Press, which published Henry Miller's sexually frank novel Tropic of Cancer, and Olympia Press, which published William Burroughs's Naked Lunch. Since there are a large number of banned books, some publishers have sought out to publish these books.

Banned books include fictional works such as novels, poems and plays and non-fiction works such as biographies and dictionaries. This article lists notable banned books and works, giving a brief context for the reason that each book was prohibited. The practice of banning books is a form of censorship, from political, legal, religious, moral, or (less often) commercial motives. A display of formerly banned books at a US libraryīanned books are books or other printed works such as essays or plays which are prohibited by law or to which free access is not permitted by other means.

Book review outlawed