Tuesday 1 October 2013

The Little Free Library

Sunday night and I took the dog for a walk in the evening, as she'd been driving us mad all day, being especially naughty and spirited.  I enjoy taking her for a walk when it is getting dark, as I like to see all the lights on in people's houses.  They all look so cosy from the outside.

Anyway, I digress, whilst on this walk around the streets near where we live I happened upon a little wooden house on somebody's garden wall.  I decided to take a closer look to find that it was in fact a Little Free Library.  As I didn't have my camera with me on the walk I returned during my morning walk with the dog the following day and took a few photos in daylight.  Here is the little house.



It is so cute and housed a little community library.  The idea is a wonderful one.  It really touched me.  It was filled with books for people to borrow and return.  It also had a little notebook in there for you to write comments about the books or the library itself or recommend books to others.  In addition, there were also stickers to stick inside the books  and to comment on the book and recommend it to others.


I also saw a poster on a local noticeboard advertising the launch of this little library the previous afternoon.  They had had a launch party with tea and cake.  Pity I hadn't seen it sooner.  Anyway, I decided to enter into the spirit of it and borrow a book which I did.  There were a couple of titles that appealed, but in the end I borrowed this one.  



It sounds quite good.  Just the sort of thing I like.  There was quite a range of books with more serious authors, children's authors, celebrity authors, etc.  I noticed on my return that a few books had been taken since I'd originally seen it.  Hopefully it will be a success and people will regard it with the spirit of generosity and community that it aims to foster.  I for one will probably be a regular visitor and may take a few books of my own there to add to the selection. 

After reading about this global phenomenon on their website at littlefreelibrary.org. I returned once again the following day to take a book to replace the one I borrowed and help keep the library stocked.  The premise is Take a Book Return a Book.  I'm glad I did as there were only a few books left in there.

The idea for these little libraries began in the US, but still seems quite new to Europe judging by the number of libraries registered on the map on the website.  Their motto is Always a Gift Never for Sale, you can even check out the map on the website and see where there is one near you.   If you are interested in setting up one of your own it also tells you how to go about it.

It is a fabulous idea and put a smile on my face on a Sunday evening.



 

 
 

2 comments:

  1. How lovely! Community spirit at it's best. Dx

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  2. How delightful. I may do this. I did think of leaving books for people to find like in phone boxes ( if there were any left ) I was going to call it The Book Fairy.

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