My mother knows I'm an anarchist, but I don't think I've ever discussed it with my father or anyone else in my family. I guess anyone who knows my political stance sees me as a leftist. I can actually remember a situation similar to yours in which my parents didn't like the fact that I was reading Darwin, but those days are past.

Your situation doesn't sound good at all. I've always thought my parents were pretty impatient; I can even recall asking them what race relations were like during the civil rights era and the conversation quickly devolved into shouting about how I was accusing them of being racists. Like the Costanza household or something. Really weird.

Anyway, if your parents are getting that upset about you reading something harmless, I guess I would just suggest keeping a calm demeanor as best you can, trying to explain what's in the books, maybe read an excerpt or something if you can get a word in edgewise, and state what you believe. Based on your other comments, I assume you've considered moving out, correct?

If your father is demanding to open your mail, that sounds like an infringement of your privacy. Based on what I'm hearing, it sounds like you need to figure out whether you'll pursue (or not pursue) your interests with respect to what they want you to read and not read. If you have no intention to adhere to their standard, make sure that they know that. But whether that's the right thing to do depends on your financial situation, so that's up to you. But be slow to anger, slow to retort and all that. If it isn't worth it, look into reading electronic books or something. Almost all anarchist literature isn't copyrighted, so you might want to look into printing and binding your own books if you prefer print to digital. I can help out with that if you need it.

Anyway, good luck, and keep us posted.