The Most Powerful Books Are Usually the Ones They Tried to Ban. Now They're in Dua Lipa's Library.

Based in central Porto, Portugal, there's a beautiful historic bookshop called Livraria Lello, where Dua Lipa and her book club, Service95, have just co-opened a new manifesto library dedicated to banned books and authors who were once silenced. The manifesto library includes 100 contemporary books that challenged society. It features works about power, censorship, politics, and books that were once considered too controversial for readers. According to Service95's newsletter, the library is divided into four sections: Power, Control, Voice, and Memory.

In an Instagram post shared by Dua Lipa, Livraria Lello, and Service95, Lipa described the library as

"A shrine to books that have disappeared, to authors whose courage unmasks structures of power and control, and to readers who refuse to be told what books they are allowed to read."

It is a testament to every work of art that was silenced. A tribute to the writers who worked tirelessly to tell stories the world needed to hear. These authors had the courage to question the societies they lived in and the systems that governed them. Their courage should inspire us to question the world around us, too.

I believe this initiative is more important now than ever before. In a world where algorithms increasingly tell us what to think, what to consume, and even what our taste in culture should be, we need books that challenge us. We are constantly being encouraged to embrace trends that don't necessarily reflect who we are.

Among the books included in the manifesto library are 1984 by George Orwell, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and The Trial by Franz Kafka. Many of the books we assume were banned for good reason are, in fact, some of the most important works ever written. I remember reading 1984 in high school, and it remains one of the most life-changing books I've ever read. My literature teacher told me it had been banned because of its sexual content. But as I read it, that explanation quickly fell apart. Compared to many books available today, its sexual content is minimal. The more I read, the more I understood why people truly feared it. It questioned systems of power, authority, and control. And that is often what makes a book dangerous.

Another banned book featured in Lipa's library is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a novel that famously opens with books being thrown into fires for being considered "unlawful." Sometimes it feels as though those books have started burning again and Dua Lipa has chosen to save them. In Bradbury's novel, the government destroys books to weaken people's ability to think critically and question the world around them. It's difficult not to see echoes of that vision today, as we read less and consume more algorithmically curated content designed to distract rather than challenge us. We are in desperate need of books that disrupt the way we think. We need books that give us courage. Books that remind us how to question. Unlike social media, books rarely tell us what to think. They simply invite us to think differently. They allow us to step outside our own perspective and see the world through someone else's eyes.

It is no coincidence that many of the books that have been banned are also the books that provoke the greatest conversations. They challenge accepted truths, spark disagreement, and awaken our inner critic. Reading develops something that has become increasingly rare: empathy, curiosity, analytical thinking, and the ability to form our own conclusions. Reading today is more essential than ever, and reading banned books will unlock a new level of wisdom in us. It helps us see ourselves and the world around us from different perspectives.

There is a certain irony in banning these books when, more often than not, they are simply reflecting the realities we already live in. Whether they were banned for profanity, political themes, religious criticism, or sexual content, there are countless reasons they were censored—and perhaps even more reasons why they deserve to be read. With this library, Dua Lipa has used her platform to amplify the voices of thousands of writers, both past and present. It is an example of how public influence can be used to preserve culture rather than simply promote it.

What Dua Lipa is doing for literature deserves recognition. Through Service95, she has built far more than a celebrity book club. She has created a cultural gateway for people who love reading, introducing audiences to profound, life-changing books while interviewing authors in ways that encourage readers to understand literature on a much deeper level.

Photo © Dua Lipa's IG @dualipa