Little Free Library

[jyl]

You know what a “Little Free Library” is. They are little cabinets, usually a cibic foot or so, on posts in someone’s yard, where they leave books for passerby to take and read and pass on. We have a dozen or so in my neighborhood, people strolling and walking their dogs and kids coming home from school like to stop and browse and bring home a new book.

We are purging and organizing our books. My goodness, we have so many. I think we could start a little bookstore. We filled a dozen boxes with books to get rid of, some pretty good books actually, and my daughter said “let’s have a Little Free Library!”

So if you’re going to do something, might as well overdo it.

At a local recyclery, we picked up a kitchen upper cabinet. I made a pitched roof with rafters and a steel “roof” from some ducting left over from my range vent hood project. This picture was taken while I was dulling the sharp edges of the sheet metal.



We are going to have labeled sections - Kids, Fiction, Non-fiction, Hobbies, etc. Also some CDs because we have an excess of those laying around.



Now for the fun stuff. My daughter is going to design and make a stamp, “From the _____ Library” for the books, and “library cards” for people to take, if they want, and a little star stamp on a chain, so they can stamp their card once for each book they take, if they really want to get into it. Which I only imagine little kids will, but who knows. We’ll have a “reading and writing” cork bulletin board, for people to leave notes - members wanted for book club, etc.

We have yet to pick a name for the library. Must be some literary reference. Cogitating.

To be fully ridiculous, my daughter is going to get the library its own Instagram account.

On the practical side, this cabinet is going to sit out in the weather year-round - not much sun where it will be, but plenty of wind-blown rain. We’re going to paint it some bright color, which should help protect the wood. I feel like maybe I should take some scrap duct sheet steel material and make flashing lips to overhang the tops of the doors. I might also cover the gables with more scrap sheet, and will caulk or tape over the screws in the roof. What else should I do to help it last longer? It’s a kitchen cabinet, was never meant to be outside.

[varmint]

Have been thinking of this for a while. Neighbor has an unrepairable cheap grandfather clock. A few shelves in there. Tin roof. And a hell of a lot of varnish. Of the projects I have planned it’s somewhere in the top fifty.

Figure it’s sacrificial. If it lasts five years you’re ahead of the game. Then build another.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Great Idea!

Many old red telephone boxes in villages and towns in the UK have been repurposed into mini free libraries

https://nothingintherulebook.com/2018/11/03/british-phone-box-libraries/

[Rick Lee]

I've seen these around Germany a lot. Many are right in a main town square in a glass case, free for anyone to take or return.

[herr_oberst]

Pretty cool! How will it be displayed?

[LWJ]

Love this. I considered the same. However, to continue on my fly fishing narrative, it seems that every now and then people do this streamside with flies. Which seems even cooler.

To be fair, I also considered this idea with sticks for dogs...

[stevej37]

I see them quite often on the 'rails to trails' in West Michigan.
Some are miles from the closest road....it's a nice idea.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Love this. I considered the same. However, to continue on my fly fishing narrative, it seems that every now and then people do this streamside with flies. Which seems even cooler.

To be fair, I also considered this idea with sticks for dogs...

There's a woman who makes hiking poles out of bamboo; she carves little figures into them, adds a rubber crutch tip and gives them a coat of shellac, and leaves them at the head of a local hiking trail (Dog Mountain).

That fly library idea is so cool.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Pretty cool! How will it be displayed?

In the ivy bank on the north side of my house, under the remaining living tree. I have some metal rails to pound into the ground, and the back of the cabinet will be bolted to those rails, so the cabinet floats just above the (soggy) earth. I'm hoping that the ivy will eventually grow up onto the cabinet.

[flatbutt]

I put one out in front of my house but all it does is collect musty old books that no one wants.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I put one out in front of my house but all it does is collect musty old books that no one wants.

Pull those and put them in someone else's LFL, and take their good books for yours!

[Tobra]

They have those around here. For a while the state was trying to eliminate them, but gave up.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Tobra

They have those around here. For a while the state was trying to eliminate them, but gave up.

Why did the state of CA care? Officious bureaucrats or an actual reason?

[Rot 911]

We have one about a half a block down from our house. In fact, I’m reading a book I got out of there right now. And I put plenty of books back in there!

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by jyl

Why did the state of CA care? Officious bureaucrats or an actual reason?

The former

[Arizona_928]

Sci-hub.ru is the best free academic library

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I put one out in front of my house but all it does is collect musty old books that no one wants.

Stupid romance novels. The new pulp fiction. And kids books. I'd pick up a biography but never see one.

[Jeff Hail]

Back in the 1960's and 1970's the State Parks (California Beach Camps) had free standing cabinets at camp sites. McGrath, El Capitan, Refugio and Gaviota all had them.

One year they all disappeared as they were by then in rough condition. Over the years I have seen them in Santa Barbara, Atascadero and Ventura converted to Little Librarys.

I usually give away old and read books away when I am done.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Stupid romance novels. The new pulp fiction. And kids books. I'd pick up a biography but never see one.

We have lots of pretty good books to put in there. There will be fishing books, car books, cycling books, biographies, sports and hobby and craft books, science fiction, literature, cookbooks, travel books, some kids’ books, etc. It’s mostly stuff I’d keep, but we’re just busting at the seams here, and the worst of it is still worth passing on. I used to sell my excess and duplicate books to Powells Books but they are so selective it’s a pain - you haul six boxes there and come back with five boxes.

I get some magazines that people might like - The Economist and so on. Heck I could get in the habit of putting my New York Times there, home delivery of that is spendy and plenty of neighbors are on fixed incomes.

[varmint]

working on it today. Hope to have it in place Monday.

Bunch of dr Seuss and old spy novels. What else should I put in?