The other day, my Best Friend told me about something new to her in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia—Street Library.
She was quite surprised when I told her I’d blogged about them; in fact the first time was back in 2012, in the article, Little Libraries Spreading All Over :-)
An excerpt:
Fairly small, up on a pole, books inside, and saying, “Take A Book – Leave A Book”.
This phenomenon began in Hudson, Wisconsin, USA and has already spread to Europe and Africa.
From USA Today: “Todd Bol wanted to honor his mother, a former teacher and book lover who died a decade ago. So two years ago, Bol built a miniature model of a library, filled it with books for anyone to take, and placed it outside his home….From that idea, hundreds of similar Little Free Libraries are popping up on lawns across the country. They’re tiny — no bigger than a dollhouse. Some look like miniature homes or barns. Others just look like a box on a post.”
And, I was happy to see that the Australian group rendered a certain amount of homage to the apparent Founder, Todd Bol…
So…
The first link in this post was to the Australian group and this one —>Little Free Library — is the group in the USA.(I’d love some links from other countries:-)
“We’ve constructed communities where one must obtain permission from the state before freely sharing books with one’s neighbors!”
That article is clearly about the United States; yet, I’d love information from readers in other countries about whether Little Free Libraries are being fought…
There is a MAP for finding Little Free Libraries, all over the world…
And, I’ll leave you with two videos—one a short summary of the concept of these neighborly libraries; and, one with an eight-year-old (very aware she’ll be on TV) telling you why they’re so cool :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you don’t see a way to comment (or, “reply”) after this post, try up there at the top right… Read Some Strange Fantasies Grab A Free Novel…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Google Author Page For Private Comments or Questions, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com
The idea was started by Todd Bol and Rick Brooks and you can find out all you need to know to build one or buy one or join the movement or just ponder the phenomenon of book sharing that doesn’t use the Internet at the Official Little Free Library Site:-)
And, this map hints at the spread of these little wonders.
My friend sent me the following links to show the increased interest in her part of the world:
Fairly small, up on a pole, books inside, and saying, “Take A Book – Leave A Book”.
This phenomenon began in Hudson, Wisconsin, USA and has already spread to Europe and Africa.
From USA Today: “Todd Bol wanted to honor his mother, a former teacher and book lover who died a decade ago. So two years ago, Bol built a miniature model of a library, filled it with books for anyone to take, and placed it outside his home….From that idea, hundreds of similar Little Free Libraries are popping up on lawns across the country. They’re tiny — no bigger than a dollhouse. Some look like miniature homes or barns. Others just look like a box on a post.”
Todd contacted his friend Rick Brooks and they set up LittleFreeLibrary.Org, linked-to up in that excerpt from USA Today. Do read the whole article; there’s lots more happening; even prisoners are getting into the act :-)
Here are just a few of the comments from the article:
“I thought it was a great way, in a small way, to spread the love of literature.”
“I have no idea how many literally thousands of books have been in and out of there.”
“I love it. I like the sense of community, I like the concept and the comfort level of sharing reading materials.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-) For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com
World News
Notes from An Alien 