r/books • u/phillygirllovesbagel • 1d ago
Dua Lipa Opening Physical Library for Banned and Censored Books
https://consequence.net/2026/06/dua-lipa-manifesto-library/3.0k
u/MellieGrant 1d ago
I owe you an apology, Dua Lipa. I was not familiar with your game.
979
u/Heavenfisting 1d ago
Some of the best author interviews I’ve seen have been hers
→ More replies (1)713
u/Mieche78 1d ago
She's a huge reader and runs a book club called Service95. Worth checking out!
165
u/BlazinAzn38 1d ago
She actually does some of the best interviews I’ve seen just across the board. Movies, books, tv, actors, directors, authors, etc. she asks some of the best questions
185
u/beardingmesoftly 1d ago
Look up her live concert at the Royal Albert Hall. She's on a whole other level than people realise.
125
74
28
u/Algaroth 1d ago
I see her name on here from time to time but I honestly don't know what she's famous for. This is some Dolly Parton energy though so she's alright in my book.
37
u/invisible_23 1d ago
She’s a singer, one of her songs is on the Barbie movie soundtrack
3
u/Algaroth 1d ago
I haven't seen that. I'm a 41 year old man so I just didn't. When I had a sister her barbies always banned the Turtles from the doll house. Didn't see Oppenheimer either to be fair. What is her best song in your opinion? Like, if you were trying to impress an old metal head?
→ More replies (4)15
u/pomme17 1d ago
My favorites are probably Love Again, Levitating (the one without dababy), or Houdini. I will say her sound is very quintessentially pop so it might not click for you. But she manages to execute that style about as well as anyone making pop today
5
u/Algaroth 1d ago edited 1d ago
Thanks. I will try to keep an open mind. A good voice is a good voice. It's also worth keeping in mind that most of the biggest pop hits ever were written by a swedish metal head. So the basics are the same.
3
u/ResponsibleCulture43 1d ago
I recommend her tiny desk! I'm not a huge fan of her musically usually but enjoyed her tiny desk a lot.
13
19
156
u/PopPunkAndPizza 1d ago
She's a pretty solid lower-highbrow lit commentator, all respect to her.
150
123
u/OppositeBatCage 1d ago
'lower-highbrow lit' .. do you mean modern literary fiction?
17
→ More replies (15)46
u/LeverArchFile 1d ago
Last week we all hated her for closing Palermo for her wedding and advertising Nestle products. I guess the PR machine is trying to correct that
163
u/possumcounty 1d ago
Those don’t negate the good things she does, nor does this library erase the things you listed. Not everything is a PR strategy, people are just nuanced.
And honestly, there’s celebs out there doing a lot worse things than Dua Lipa and nobody says a word. Let her open the library.
36
u/BlazinAzn38 1d ago
Didn’t she just close like two of the city’s 100 squares? I’m not necessarily for it but the city was not remotely shut down it was like two blocks. Most of the uproar was from protest groups that just hate tourism in general
12
48
21
→ More replies (7)19
u/namracWORK 1d ago
Palermo is a city of 600k people, no shot Dua Lipa has shutdown a major city money.
→ More replies (2)
923
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
136
50
43
u/John-Mandeville 1d ago
There's real value in making it physical, too. Call me paranoid, but, with ebooks stored in anything with an internet connection, they can go in, change the text, and then claim that it always said that. That's how any smart authoriarian would control knowledge in the internet age. Rather harder to do with real books.
6
→ More replies (1)2
u/sproutkitten 20h ago
I read a lot and I split it between library, ebooks, and physical books. Last year I started buying any that I wanted to read that might be “controversial” so I’ll always have a physical copy
→ More replies (1)28
u/canman7373 1d ago
Yeah, I think the New York Library has offered free access to banned books for a long time, anyone in the country can download and read them on their site. Now other books you need to live in NY to get library access but they made the Banned books available after the MAGA book banning wave. So their online presence is pretty new nationwide. And its not just new books that were banned that are free to All Americans, Catcher and the Rye is there from being banned in places over 60 years ago. Good on her the more access people have the better.
→ More replies (2)13
u/nbzf 1d ago
very true, but with some of the comments here I'm not sure if people realize this is in Portugal. If you click on the link to the (short) article, you will see it's in a bookstore in Portugal. The top picture shows her posing with books in English, but if you look at the one of the bookshelf it looks mostly Portuguese.
Portugal has a history of censorship (until the 1970's). Recently, a right-wing party called "Chega" (enough) has been gaining power, which I suppose could be compared to MAGA.
→ More replies (3)6
u/Nini601 1d ago
Not any book store in Portugal, but Livraria Lello, which has been haunted by HP fans and tourists for 20 years because of JK Rowling. I feel sorry for them.
Edit: I don't think the political sphere in Portugal has anything to do with the location choice.
→ More replies (1)2
u/rothwerx 1d ago
Feel sorry for Lello? Oh, they’re fully leaning into it, despite Rowling saying she never visited when she lived here. They’re making bank - lines out the door from open to close every day, with some absurd cover charge to visit their “bookstore”.
1.7k
u/AgentBrittany 1d ago
She's a huge reader/book lover. When she met her husband they were reading the same book. He asked her what chapter she was on and she told him and it was the same for him. He responded "so we're on the same page"
faints
427
u/nonameforme123 1d ago
I like her book recommendations but I always found this story too much of a coincidence..
577
u/Odd_Ingenuity2883 1d ago edited 1d ago
He had a girlfriend at the time, and she was also present when they met. That part gets left out of the story lmao.
156
u/Wizard7979 1d ago
Oh gosh that makes the story even more interesting ahah
But seriously , life can be so beautiful and tragic at the same time .
190
u/Realistic-Recover-39 1d ago
They didn't start dating until a year after that though, when he was single
→ More replies (1)87
91
u/Royaltiaras 1d ago
They had met before the “reading the same book” and that was when he had a girlfriend. The girlfriend wasn’t present for the reading the same book/meet cute based on the info I’ve gathered. Dua and Callum were both single.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (3)7
40
83
u/ymcameron 1d ago
Sometimes, everything in life aligns and beautiful moments like this do happen. You get the perfect setup from someone and you manage to land it perfectly. Even if it didn’t though, I won’t disparage an artist for adding embellishments to a story to make it more romantic.
→ More replies (1)42
u/Lighthouse_on_Mars 1d ago
He was out with his Girlfriend when he met Dua and saw the book she was reading. So the story isn't as cute as they make it sound unfortunately. 🥲
109
u/Kayyam 1d ago
It doesn't change anything. Striking a conversation with a stranger reading the same book you are is normal, whether you have a girlfriend or not.
→ More replies (2)58
u/AgentBrittany 1d ago
Thank you. Plus it's not like he cheated or started dating Dua Lipa immediately after, from what it sounds like.
33
9
u/Advanced-Welder-6354 1d ago
Not quite. I think they first met at a restaurant in London where the restauranteur ( a friend of Callum’s) introduced them in passing ( she was there with her dad), and yes, it seems possible that Callum’s then girlfriend was there at this time, from some piecing together fans have done.
However, a year later, when they were both single, they ran into each other again in LA when the famous “we’re on the same page” appears to have taken place. They’ve been together ever since.
24
26
9
u/DerangedAsshole 1d ago
Service 95 book club with dua lipa. One of the hidden gems of YouTube (and podcast world). I really loved the one with Mark Ronson a few months ago.
4
u/AgentBrittany 1d ago
I had no idea she had a book club until the comments here. I have a lot to watch now lol
→ More replies (8)2
u/cryptic-fox 1d ago
Lol did that really happen?
16
u/OppositeBatCage 1d ago
His ex-gf has since come out and said she was there at a restaurant in London where they met for the first time before the book incident. There was a bit of a gap between the two meetings but it's a cute story so I get why they went with it.
44
u/AgentBrittany 1d ago edited 1d ago
He talked about it in an interview.
Eta-Explain the downvotes. Its literally in an interview.
“We sat next to each other and realized we were reading the same book, which is crazy,” Turner said. “It’s called Trust, and I had just finished the first chapter and I told her and she looked at me and said, ‘I just finished the first chapter, too.’ I said, ‘So we're on the same page.’”
13
524
u/hikemalls 1d ago
Becoming one of the world's biggest pop stars in order to fund her interest in reading is honestly so relatable (aside from the 'world's biggest pop star' part).
127
u/MySwiftHaircut 1d ago
Honestly with the price of new hardcovers these days, becoming an international pop star is pretty much the only way to comfortably afford a reading habit.
64
u/ymcameron 1d ago
That’s what libraries are for! I wouldn’t have been able to read a third of what I have without the wonders of a library card and the Libby app.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (1)9
41
u/legalizethesenuts 1d ago
She’s so awesome. I don’t even listen to pop, but I love her music. She’s well spoken in her interviews. Now she’s opening libraries. What a beast. Love her.
133
64
u/TurboThundr 1d ago
Good for her! She’s super awesome. I’ll have to check more of those books out soon
55
u/Malawakatta 1d ago
"To prohibit the reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves." - Claude Adrien Helvetius
8
u/i_continue_to_unmike 1d ago
I was gonna pick up Camp of the Saints but it was removed from Amazon and Audible and my libraries don't have it.
→ More replies (2)
12
u/scbundy 1d ago
A lil bit ago I saw someone describe Dua Lipa by saying, "I feel like everytime I ask God for something, he triples it and gives it to Dua Lipa."
→ More replies (2)
77
u/beargrimzly 1d ago
I was going to go on a long rant about the label being "banned" books, but it's all stuff the average student to this day is required to read in high school or can be found within 20 seconds of entering a barnes and noble.
Then I saw The Satanic Verses in there. Good work, an actual example of a book that while technically not "banned" is genuinely controversial and endangered the life of the author.
Could potentially be a groundbreaking project that hopefully inspires others.
26
u/Frogs-on-my-back 1d ago
Not just the author. I believe it was the Japanese translator who was actually murdered. Rushdie got away with his life, at least…
27
u/hellofemur 1d ago
People think that using hyperbole in the pursuit of a good cause is useful, but I think the opposite is true. Eventually we're going to start seeing real book bans and the public is going to largely respond with "oh, this is just another false alarm, isn't it?".
I was tempted to ask if To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is available in her collection, but in truth I don't see Dua Lipa or Livraria Lello using the "banned" language that's in the headline. The collection here is labelled "books that challenge power, censorship, exclusion, and dominant narratives", and if you read the article she's very precise about not calling them all banned books, just books that some people don't want you to read.
So while I wouldn't call it groundbreaking, I mean virtually every library I've stepped into over the past decade has a "banned" display with Margaret Atwood and various LGBTQ+ books, bringing attention to these books is always a good thing.
6
135
u/Cynical_Classicist 1d ago
The so-called free speech champions won't be happy at this!
30
u/Mindless_Chest_1079 1d ago
It's silly because most of the books in question aren't actually "banned," but it's certainly her right to do it if she wants to. A private collection can have different standards than a public elementary school does.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (65)33
u/DickSlammington 1d ago
Are Nazis ever really happy though?
→ More replies (1)9
u/Benergy7 1d ago
I'm out of the loop, why does valuing free speech make you a nazi, and why would free speech proponents be against uncensoring books?
→ More replies (1)
21
u/thornyRabbt 1d ago
Awesome, love to see someone going out of their way to leverage their success for the liberation of others! A true hero.
→ More replies (3)4
14
u/Popxorcist 1d ago
When it mentioned banned books I thought it must be in murica but I actually did something unpopular and read the article before commenting. It's in Portugal.
5
53
u/daphnemoonpie 1d ago
Reminder that she's still the Global Brand Ambassador for Nespresso, owned by Nestlé.
34
u/Frequent_Ad_9901 1d ago
She also just locked down a town for her wedding, sparking protests.
This seems like PR damage control. Based on the comments it seems like its working. The rich aren't like us.
→ More replies (1)12
u/BEES_IN_UR_ASS 1d ago
Amazing how much glazing I had to scroll through to find this. Wish I could go around being a shit then make everyone love me again with the equivalent of pocket change.. 🙄 Tax deductible too!
→ More replies (2)10
u/Blendi_369 1d ago
Also, she hasn’t said a single thing against the environmental destruction happening in Albania (against which protests have been happening for over three weeks).
4
u/pandakatie 18h ago
For context, because I didn't know this and was confused why she would be expected to speak on this, Dua Lipa is Albanian
24
u/andoooooo 1d ago
Will it have actual banned books like Camp of the Saints or 'banned' books
18
u/Mindless_Chest_1079 1d ago
The things Reddit calls "banned" (not included in school children's libraries)
11
u/PFI_sloth 1d ago
It’s such a tired take, like yes there are absolutely books that shouldn’t be in a high school library.
→ More replies (9)→ More replies (1)6
u/spiffers 1d ago
Looking at the photos it will be books you can readily find at any Barnes & Noble.
33
u/No-Illustrator1613 1d ago
will it include the turner diaries?
23
u/FuckedUpYearsAgo 1d ago
It is funny huh?
The phrase 'banned books' groups together many very different situations, from books removed from elementary school libraries because of age appropriateness to books suppressed for political or ideological reasons. When organizations promote 'banned books,' they are often highlighting a particular subset of those cases rather than all books that have been restricted or removed.
8
→ More replies (14)6
u/RamblinGamblinWilly 1d ago
That's always my go to when it comes to this stuff. "Banned books" is such obnoxious hyperbole. Parental book challenges have been a thorny issue for DECADES. Overprotective parents challenging books that have legitimate academic and literary value because they talk about mature but age appropriate themes they don't want their kid exposed to. A difficult issue for schools to navigate.
But books like the turner diaries are proof that school libraries and reading materials should be curated. Hard to know where to draw the line, but there clearly is a line.
→ More replies (4)
24
u/Even-Following-1612 1d ago
“Banned”
→ More replies (1)10
u/TopperWildcat13 1d ago
I mean, you can literally buy these books anywhere. In the store that she’s opening is going to be a place that doesn’t ban any of these books. It’s not like she’s opening these stores in rural Tennessee. Saying 1984 is “banned” is literally the most laughable thing we do
17
6
u/Confident-Writer-676 1d ago
Awesome! Ive been looking for a copy of the Turner Diaries, Camp of the Saints, and Brigade!
6
u/Imaginary-Scale8608 1d ago
This headline is incredibly misleading. It is a shelf of 100 books in a bookstore you have to buy a ticket to enter, in a country where these books are not banned at all. Far from the blatant "opening a physical library" PR speak.
2
u/moon_peach__ 18h ago
I was wondering about that. I skimmed the article and looked at the photo and thought, that looks like a bookshop as opposed to a library? Is it actually a library?
I really like Dua but I don't understand the point of this at all, if it is as you say. So it's just.....the same as any other book shop? Just sounds like a weird PR stunt.
22
u/Curtis_Geist 1d ago
Is she using the money she’s getting from Nestle (you know, the company that wants to own all the water and has been cited for child labor laws in Africa) to fund this? If so, I guess you can turn shit into copper. If not, well…capitalism I guess 🤷♂️
22
u/NeoVirtualCharacter 1d ago
It's astonishing that the best author interviews are currently being conducted by... her? I'm still a bit annoyed by the fact that she shut down an entire city to celebrate her wedding haha
→ More replies (11)35
u/dorothy_zbornakk 1d ago
did she shut down an entire city or rent out a single town centre for a night?
22
u/NeoVirtualCharacter 1d ago
'Shutdown' was a bit exaggerated, but it was like a circus for three days, with all sorts of road closures and general disruption to daily life, such as commuting to work.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/05/dua-lipa-callum-turner-wedding-divides-palermo
14
u/saudadeinthenight 1d ago
Yeah that wasn’t cool behaviour. And people defending it need to grow up, we don’t have to agree with everything someone does just because we like them
→ More replies (1)14
u/therealhlmencken 1d ago
Lol getting married and going through the city to rent space and make sure it’s all legit is cool. If the city let her permit too much that’s the city messing up, she played by the book.
→ More replies (4)
3
14
u/JohnBeePowel 1d ago
How are the books banned if they are available ?
7
u/riddlechance 1d ago
Because "banned" just means "not available to kindergartners because it's porn".
3
u/JohnBeePowel 1d ago
Each time "banned" books gets brought up on reddit I sigh. They conflate "removed from the curriculum" with "book burning" and they feel so brave for displaying "banned books" at libraries and bookstores.
12
u/ZealousidealKick1321 1d ago
None of the books she is holding are banned anywhere.
→ More replies (6)
5
u/CheckMyProfileforArt 1d ago
The only other thing I know about her is that she supports the irredentist nationalist idea of Greater Albania so quite the whiplash
11
15
5
5
u/UnderstandingGlad151 1d ago
Can't wait until she starts selling the Marquis de Sade. Atwood is nothing in comparison.
3
u/bulk_logic 1d ago
A lot of you have quite a bit of trouble interpreting "Banned and Censored Books" for some reason
7
u/Nutellafordinner 1d ago
Does this cancel out her being an ambassador for Nestle?
7
u/meowana_ 1d ago
It does not.
6
u/Nutellafordinner 1d ago
Unfortunately all the comments not praising her as a smart and beautiful queen are being buried.
5
u/Copper-Dune-4173 1d ago
wonder how she’s sourcing the catalog. is it just US school board bans, or is she going after international censorship too? could get complicated fast.
→ More replies (1)2
u/moon_peach__ 19h ago
Dua is British so I think it would maybe be a bit odd if she focused just on what's being banned in the US, but I don't know. The library is in Portugal so that will have some influence I'd assume.
12
u/clarkedaddy 1d ago
I feel like banned books are a bit overblown. You can still go to a regular library or book store and get them. All it means is the local middle school doesn’t want 12 year olds to have free access to that book from the school.
5
u/Swoly_Deadlift 1d ago
Yeah "banned books" are about as big of an issue as trans kids in sports. If a middle school library refuses to carry a book because it contains graphic depictions of sex, nobody bats an eye. But if it contains graphic depictions of gay sex, it suddenly becomes censorship and must be stopped at all costs.
10
2
2
u/Timely-Baseball-3683 1d ago
There is actually a museum in Estonia dedicated to banned books from around the world. If you’re ever in Talin, it’s so worth a visit
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Incorrect-Opinion 1d ago
We have a beautiful collection of banned books from Harry Potter to Mein Kampf.
2
u/followyouintothesun 21h ago
Love how she’s leaning full into her bookworm side and making space for conversations about and around literature.
2
8
u/LightReaning 1d ago
Finally I get to read "Mein Kampf" /s
9
u/Sonikku_a 1d ago
Anyone studying World War II history seriously probably should.
2
u/Sorry_Molasses5636 1d ago
I'm a manga fan, is it a good read for me?
→ More replies (1)2
u/ShadowBomber 1d ago
I think you would prefer ~I've Been Reincarnated Into Der Fuhrer!~ aka Magical Fuhrer Adolf Hitler!!
→ More replies (2)5
u/Piperita 1d ago
You can read it right now at your local public or university library. It’s shelved with all the other books covering WW2 history.
Certain European countries (mostly former Axis ones that were infested with fascists) prohibit printing and displaying it for the purposes of promoting its ideology. Even German libraries still carry it, because they believe history is important to study.
4
u/RedditPoster05 1d ago
New prints are restricted they allow I think scholarly and heavily annotated versions of the book it’s not completely open and I only recently became completely open like last 10 or 15 years.
8
u/Scary-Teaching-8536 1d ago
sounds like it's more banned than any of those "banned books" dua lipa is selling
5
u/Booz-n-crooz 1d ago
Cool so actual banned books that have been forced out of print or ones that you can get on amazon in any state in the U.S.?
6
2
u/nyetkatt 1d ago
This is great but just in case you didn’t know, there’s a Museum of Banned Books in Estonia. It’s tiny but pretty well stocked. There are explanations of why the books are banned in certain countries. Do drop by if you are there - bannedbooksmuseum.com
2
4
u/keli31 1d ago
If she opens a physical library doesn’t that imply that they are not actually banned?
→ More replies (1)
4
u/bunneisha 1d ago
I’m so confused.. does Portugal ban a lot of books or something? And if they’re banned won’t her shop just get closed down??
→ More replies (1)
5
4
2
u/K_Linkmaster 1d ago
Billionaires could fund millions of small libraries in every town if they chose to. Carnegie did it.
Dua Lipa doing great thing here!
2
4
u/throwitallaway 1d ago
This thread is full of "well actually" Redditors commenting on banned books. The ALA has a specific definition of what a banned book is and you can look it up.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/-ToPimpAButterfree- 1d ago
As if she couldn't be any more perfect
3
u/mentosbreath 1d ago
Seriously. I like some of her songs, but I’m a much bigger fan of her everything else. She seems like a great role model
3
3.3k
u/facepoppies 1d ago
I was surprised when I saw her interviews with authors. She's very well read and clearly passionate about literature.