It's fun to be on vacation and go visit one of these. They're usually not in tourist areas and are likely to be in well established neighborhoods that a a different vibe than home. Also fun to read and come home with some random book that anchors you to that trip.
yeah! I've done some geocaching (or even just walking around exploring) while on my travels, and have very often encountered these "leave one, take one" type of free libraries along the way. It's really interesting to find different types of books depending on the area - the small town on an island of course has all these books on marine travel, sailing, that sort of stuff, for example. Nice way to get a little extra idea of the area and its culture, sometimes.
Just this morning I added several copies of books 1,2 & 3 of the Wheel Of Time series to a random Little Free Library because I had so much fun reading them and I hoped others would as well.
I've known Rick since 2001 and was around when he & Todd kicked this off. We've both since moved and it's been a pleasure watching this take off (inter)nationally. In parens b/c I can only verify the "national" part, personally. :) I look for them whenever I visit new places
These are a great way to spread something you appreciate with the world. I once bought a stack of 30 or so well-used Calvin and Hobbes books and would regularly seed a few every now and then.
We have probably 30 of these within 10 miles and it's great. Perfect excuse to go for a walk, get a book, read it, and then return it to one of the others.
I’m sure that happens but it may still be a net benefit. The original owner gets rid of a book they don’t need and don’t need money for, somebody who needs money takes the book and sells it, and somebody who wants the book buys it.
But some do seem to just have high turnover. When I moved away from a place in New Orleans I probably took about 100 books to one of these over the course of a month. Most of the time I’d come back a couple days later and find all the books I dropped gone—and entirely different (and not obviously inferior or cheaper) books in the library.
There are about a half dozen around my neighborhood. My daughter and I constantly move books in and out of them to keep them fresh on our walks.
Sometimes they’re great; but, oftentimes I find them to be utterly and completely devoid of anything interesting or different. Almost every single one has some sort of religious spam in it.
in NA we have to call them "free libraries" because the concept of not having to pay for something is so rare, it has to be clearly indicated upfront! (joking lol, mostly!!)
i build lil free libraries and bird houses to get rid of my scrap wood. it's a fun limitation on the project that often makes ya think outside the box, so to speak.
Most of the ones around here are pretty obviously built from the same plan, but the ones that are kit-bashed from random materials are always the most interesting.
It's astounding to me that there isn't a cheap mass-produced e-ink device meant for kids to fill the need of paper books yet. We got mandated laptops in the hands of schoolchildren before this!
Are these not hell on the books, being outside and all? It's generally pretty high humidity where I live, but I still see these. I'd half expect all the books in them to be moldy.
Paper can survive in humidity for a few weeks. Think of all the antique stores in old buildings that almost certainly don’t run AC all night in hot and humid environments, and how many books survive from the era before air conditioning.
I love the idea but whenever I look in these it’s always the weirdest books and never anything I’ve heard of
Why would you want something you'd already heard of? That's hardly a discovery you could get such a book at the public library.
Consider stepping out of your comfort zone.
I build these and have one at my house.
Its been interesting.
Had some teenagers try to blow it up with fireworks.
Have to constantly remove proselytizing, mostly christian, pamphlets from it.
Had to buy a stamp https://littlefreelibrary.myshopify.com/products/self-inking... so drug addicts don't clear it out sell the books to buy smack.
Other than hat its been mostly self sustaining.
It's fun to be on vacation and go visit one of these. They're usually not in tourist areas and are likely to be in well established neighborhoods that a a different vibe than home. Also fun to read and come home with some random book that anchors you to that trip.
yeah! I've done some geocaching (or even just walking around exploring) while on my travels, and have very often encountered these "leave one, take one" type of free libraries along the way. It's really interesting to find different types of books depending on the area - the small town on an island of course has all these books on marine travel, sailing, that sort of stuff, for example. Nice way to get a little extra idea of the area and its culture, sometimes.
Just this morning I added several copies of books 1,2 & 3 of the Wheel Of Time series to a random Little Free Library because I had so much fun reading them and I hoped others would as well.
Hoping this continues.
I've known Rick since 2001 and was around when he & Todd kicked this off. We've both since moved and it's been a pleasure watching this take off (inter)nationally. In parens b/c I can only verify the "national" part, personally. :) I look for them whenever I visit new places
I've seen several book boxes in Brisbane, Australia, but neither one that I know the location of has been registered as a little free library.
These are a great way to spread something you appreciate with the world. I once bought a stack of 30 or so well-used Calvin and Hobbes books and would regularly seed a few every now and then.
We have probably 30 of these within 10 miles and it's great. Perfect excuse to go for a walk, get a book, read it, and then return it to one of the others.
I’m convinced people pick these over to resell the books in some cities.
I’m sure that happens but it may still be a net benefit. The original owner gets rid of a book they don’t need and don’t need money for, somebody who needs money takes the book and sells it, and somebody who wants the book buys it.
But some do seem to just have high turnover. When I moved away from a place in New Orleans I probably took about 100 books to one of these over the course of a month. Most of the time I’d come back a couple days later and find all the books I dropped gone—and entirely different (and not obviously inferior or cheaper) books in the library.
We have one at the local park nearby. A neighbor also has one in her front yard. It's a really neat concept!
There are about a half dozen around my neighborhood. My daughter and I constantly move books in and out of them to keep them fresh on our walks.
Sometimes they’re great; but, oftentimes I find them to be utterly and completely devoid of anything interesting or different. Almost every single one has some sort of religious spam in it.
I find that they're almost always a perfect cross-section of the local thrift store's books - including the absolutely inordinate number of cookbooks.
They’re either what folks don’t have accepted at Half Priced Books or people read absolute shit.
If the latter, it’s no wonder folks don’t read as much as they once did.
In Australia it's 'Street Library'
https://streetlibrary.org.au/
Do they have other names in different countries?
in NA we have to call them "free libraries" because the concept of not having to pay for something is so rare, it has to be clearly indicated upfront! (joking lol, mostly!!)
A great project for any student taking wood shop (our daughter built our LFL last semester).
i build lil free libraries and bird houses to get rid of my scrap wood. it's a fun limitation on the project that often makes ya think outside the box, so to speak.
Most of the ones around here are pretty obviously built from the same plan, but the ones that are kit-bashed from random materials are always the most interesting.
My wife loves these, and tries to donate a book to them when she can.
I have been dropping my puzzle books [1] into many of these in my area. It is encouraging to see they are almost always gone when I return.
[1] https://www.kakurokokoro.com/
It's astounding to me that there isn't a cheap mass-produced e-ink device meant for kids to fill the need of paper books yet. We got mandated laptops in the hands of schoolchildren before this!
I think this is very cool and a brilliant idea, there are a few of these in my area where I have borrowed and contributed books too.
Are these not hell on the books, being outside and all? It's generally pretty high humidity where I live, but I still see these. I'd half expect all the books in them to be moldy.
They’re usually reasonably rainproof.
Paper can survive in humidity for a few weeks. Think of all the antique stores in old buildings that almost certainly don’t run AC all night in hot and humid environments, and how many books survive from the era before air conditioning.