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California Gov. Gavin Newsom took to Twitter on Wednesday to share his confusion at recent efforts to ban books in some states across the country. "Reading some banned books to figure

out what these states are so afraid of," the 54-year-old Democrat wrote, alongside a photo of himself reading Toni Morrison's _Beloved_. Other books — including Harper Lee's

_To Kill a Mockingbird_ and George Orwell's _1984_ — could be seen on the table in front of him. By and large, renewed efforts to ban books have been energized by a conservative base

amid a larger cultural debate about what is appropriate for the classroom. In Tennessee, the McMinn County Board of Education voted to remove Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel _Maus_, an

animated retelling of the author's father's experience in the Holocaust, in January. The book was banned from an eighth-grade lesson plan about the Holocaust because it included

nudity and curse words. The book became an Amazon best seller after getting banned by the Tennessee county school board. In Texas, parents have recently attempted to have 86 different titles

banned, including biographies about former First Lady Michelle_ _Obama and Toni Morrison's _The Bluest Eye_ (which one parent wanted banned because it includes a rape scene). As some

Twitter users pointed out, however, books have also been banned in Newsom's own home state (Lee's novel was temporarily removed from the Burbank Unified School District over

concerns of racism in 2020). The _New York Times_ reports that The American Library Association reported an "unprecedented" 330 reports of book challenges last fall. Newsom, who

won last September's recall election in an overwhelming victory, has spoken out about banned books before, saying in his State of the State Address earlier this month that he wanted to

focus on education reform. "And I'm not talking about that version of education reform being promoted in some states, where they're banning — quite literally, you can't

make this up, they're banning books. Where you can sue your history teacher for teaching history and where you can't say even the word 'gay,' " he said, referencing

a new law in Florida that bans state educators from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation.