Like many an avid reader, I've always been turned on by nerdy librarians and so it's with great delight that I am now not only married to a nerdy librarian, but I have also become myself a nerdy, nerdy librarian. And it's all thanks to our new Little Free Library. Behold!
Katr was inspired to put up a Little Free Library on our corner nearly a year ago and this summer, it all came together, thanks to:
- The poster I saw on a dog walk advertising the Neighbourhood Small Grant program (we got a grant!)
- The totally fantastic Jen and Sara in Seattle, who let us ship our giant library to their place and donated the very first book! (LFL don't ship to Canada, yo - and sorry for the terrible picture, ladies.)
- The super awesome Darach from Farm City Food Garden Construction, who built a custom library stand, dug a hole and cemented the pole into place
Photo by Katr
- The lovely and delightful Jesse, our upstairs neighbour, who installed the hell out of the library while Andrea from CBC Radio looked on
Photo by Katr
- The neighbourhood, for totally embracing this new addition to the block and filling it full of their books
Photo by Katr
COMMUNITY FTW!
Our neighbour Sylvia (already a gold-level book donor - thanks, Sylvia!) told me that her friend saw the newly installed LFL when he came over and asked the question that most of us ask at first: "What if someone just takes all the books?"
Well, the beauty of the LFL is that the books are free, so if one person wanted to come by and take all the books and then try to sell them on Commercial, they totally could! Because it's the Little FREE Library. Although I'm sure that our official library stamp will discourage too much "borrowing with intent to sell."
Photo by Katr
It's been up for a week now and our new favourite thing is to sit in the shade of our tiny yard, tapping away on our laptops, listening as people discover the LFL. Folks just walking by will pause in their conversations and go through the books before continuing their stroll. Sometimes, we hear plastic bags crinkling and wonder if someone has come to clear us out - only to go out later and find that someone has brought over their entire Patricia Cornwall collection - hardcover.
In fact, when we started last week, we were worried that our four boxes of books wouldn't be enough to keep the LFL stocked - turns out our fears were unfounded. Thanks to neighbourhood book lovers, we've got a book bounty on our hands, allowing us to do a little curating - a little fiction, a little non-fiction, a few kids books, Twilight, the Holy Bible, a Spanish copy of the Book of Mormon ("El Libre de Mormon") - basically, a full line up.
The thing I love most about it, though, is how it's enabled us to really meet the neighbours in a non-creepy way. I have spent more time talking to our neighbours in the last week than I have over the last three years of living here. And by "neighbours", I mean "everyone who lives here" - not just the grown-ups. Last night I was out restocking the shelves and a teenage boy walked by and said "Isn't this AWESOME? I love this thing!" Yesterday morning, two tween girls HAD to stop and take a picture of it because it was SO CUTE. And what really makes Katr's day are the adorable notes people leave in the guestbook.
Photo by Katr
It's early days yet; I imagine that things might not always be so rosy at LFL Branch #6034. There might be inclement weather. There might be vandalism. Neighbourhood drug dealers might start using it as a place to stuff their stash when they're being pursued by the police and Katr and I could end up doing a nickel upstate for possession with intent to distribute.
But, like Katr said in her blog post, the LFL is totally one of the best things we've ever done. And the great thing is that if you're excited about it, you can probably start one too. HA ha! Check out littlefreelibrary.org for info on how to register a branch. I'm hoping to see wenders' Tardis LFL, inspired by this one sometime soon. No pressure, wenders.
