When I was a youngster, one of my favorite places to go was the public library.

I never tired of perusing the shelves, looking for new books to captivate me from cover to cover.

When I was very small, this meant sticking to the kids section, where the books were simpler and had handy pictures along with the text.

But it didn’t take long before I was reading at a level that even the chapter books that made up the children’s section of the library were a bit TOO simple for my tastes.

That meant a trip to the adult stacks. And there I discovered new worlds and vistas to explore.

Did I occasionally read something that was perhaps a bit over my head or that some would have deemed not entirely appropriate? Sure. Then again, I wasn’t reading the Marquis de Sade, so it was hardly an emergency.

Still, by eighth grade, I was checking out every single Stephen King, Clive Barker and Anne Rice book on the shelf, and they definitely rated higher than a PG-13, to say the least.

Well, if the Georgia Senate has their way, if some future eighth grader tries something similar, the hapless librarian who lends them a book could be put in jail.

Under Senate Bill 74, passed last week on a party-line vote, librarians would no longer be exempt from the state’s “harmful to minors” law, meaning if a librarian lends a book with obscene material (always a vague term) to a minor, they could be held criminally liable.

Of course, critics claim the primary thrust of this bill is less to keep kids away from bodice rippers or gory horror novels and more to try and penalize public and school libraries that stock books with LGBTQ themes in children’s and YA sections. Under that logic, after all, the mere existence of gay people is often seen by these critics as obscene.

Why are we policing libraries? What are we “protecting” children from? And where does it stop? Because once we start arresting librarians, the overreach will only get worse.

Here’s hoping the House or governor will kill this bill. Keep the puritans out of our reading choices and tell them to stop hiding behind children when they try.

Stephen Milligan is the news editor of The Walton Tribune. Email comments to stephen.milligan@ waltontribune.com.