Monday, June 17, 2019

Little Libraries

I grew up in a house with few books around.  My parents read the daily newspaper, but seldom, if ever read books.  Books were considered expensive, and books took up space.  There was a small collection of "Little Golden Books" and a cheap set of grocery store encyclopedias, but not a lot else around the house.  I didn't spend time in a bookstore until I was a teenager.  

My love of reading, really didn't set in until I was a young adult. Over the years it has blossomed.  E-Books and a subway / train commute have vastly expanded my reading opportunities.  I am on pace to average over one book per week again this year. 

The little library movement has sprung up over the past few years, a simple place to pass along a book to the next reader.  A great idea.  In the highrise I live in there is a bookcase in the reading room off the lobby, an open book exchange.  If you have a book you don't want to keep, drop it off, see something you like, take it with you.  A couple of times a year, the inventory is balanced, sometimes excess books are taken away, other times empty shelves are filled by a volunteer.  At this point I have left more than I have taken home, space is limited in the condo.  An most of my books are in Kindle format.  I am reading number 28 for this year. 

Over the years I have left books on airplanes, and trains, in hotel lobbies, and restaurants.  Most books I will only read once, time to pass them onto the next reader.  

Have you left a book behind for the next reader? 

6 comments:

  1. no, but I love the concept of the little library!

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  2. I regularly do that now. A little cafe near us has shelves filled for taking and leaving.

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  3. I usually donate my books to the local library. They hold a big second-hand book sale every year to fundraise for the facility.

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    1. When we emptied the other house, we donated over 1,000 books to the library. We gave away another 1,0000 to friends.

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  4. I always donate to libraries. As a kid, the bookmobile was my second (more peaceful) home. I was a ravenous reader. I especially donate books that I wished I could find at the library. Such fond memories I have of lugging books over a mile to home.

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  5. I always left paperbacks behind when we traveled, but I am buying fewer and fewer books. I am on our Friends of the Library board, and I am a regular patron of the library's book check out system. Right now, my husband and I have a home deliverer from the library who stops off every Tuesday to collect our books and books on CD to return and gives us the books on hold that have become available for us. I miss the days of going in to browse the shelves. It is just too difficult now.

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