Recently, the kids and I cleaned out bookshelves, making hard decisions about which books we felt ready to donate, and creating room for new ones. We ended up with a sizable stack that we were ready to pass along to others.
We love to give books to friends or donate them to Good Will or pad our credit at the local used bookstore. But, this time, we decided to go on a little adventure. We decided to find as many of our town’s Little Free Libraries as possible.
We owe our interest in this to a neighbor we recently met at our garage sale. She was shopping along and picked up a few little trinkets that Harper and Jameson were trying to sell. She mentioned something about stocking her little library with tiny charms – that she loved for visitors to take a book and a cute little treasure, as well (marbles, buttons, small figurines). We struck up a conversation, which led us to the discovery that she owned our very favorite little free library that we routinely walk by.
You have the hobbit library?! We love that one!
Take a look for yourself:
How could you not fall in love with this charmer? Hammered roof, solar powered lights, hand-carved wood … it’s dreamy!
To our great pleasure, we discovered many lovely libraries in town, and each of them were different. Like books, they had their own personalities. Some looked quirky like a Shel Silverstein poem, while others looked fantastical like Harry Potter. Some were straightforward and serious, like a feature piece on climate change, and others were rustic and comforting like an Agatha Christie mystery. We were happy to see that each of them was filled with books to read – all different types from yoga guides to novels to travel to children’s magazines. As we toured, we donated our books. It was such fun!
Have a peek at our wanderings:
I think these little boxes of wood are signs of the good in our world. They are invitations to a community of intellect and to our shared knowledge. They are physical representations that we still care about words, and ideas, and learning, and growing. To me, they are quite beautiful.
I hope you enjoyed our little journey. If you are interested, check out the Free Little Libraries site linked at the top. I learned so much!
