My (community) bookshelf
By Dawn McIlvain Stahl
When an English major becomes an editor of books and then transitions into an editor of “content” and social media, she becomes very susceptible to the book itch.
You may know the book itch. Not the one that Claritin clears up. The one that says you need books in your life in a meaningful way—stat!
Enter the Little Free Library.
Oddly enough, given the amount of time I spend online, I first encountered a Little Free Library out in the wild. My husband, Karl, and I were traveling, and a little book cupboard perched on a post next to a sidewalk caught my eye. I was instantly enchanted. Copy editor that I am, enchantment led to research. I discovered that Little Free Library (LFL) is a nonprofit that “inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges around the world.” I started looking for these book boxes wherever we went, and my appreciation grew.
When the book itch could no longer be ignored, creating a Little Free Library felt like the perfect connection to the meaningful book life I had been missing, as well as a good way to connect with our community in an introvert-friendly way. Vague notions turned into indeterminate plans. Then I realized that the 10th anniversary of LFL and our 10th wedding anniversary were both in 2019. We had a deadline! Real progress could commence!
We had seen some beautifully detailed house-matching LFLs, but they felt more like dollhouses than book-sharing stations. We wanted our LFL to match our house, but not be too matchy-matchy. After sketching plans and building a cardboard model, we built the final structure. And then installed the revised, final-final structure on a mild winter day. Happy 10th anniversaries!
Some LFLs specialize in genre, theme, or age, but we try to appeal to all ages and a variety of interests. That seems to fit us and our location best. We’re in an older neighborhood, just across the street from the historic courthouse square and shopping area, but also just a few blocks from three schools and a playground.
We stock a variety of genres and include everything from board books to scholarly tomes (I used to edit university press books, so I still have a few of those to offer).
Many of the books are culled from my own shelves, but we also shop $1 bag sales at local libraries and get donations from individuals and our local indie bookstore. Plus, it’s a sharing library, so people add books. “Take a book. Share a book” is the LFL motto and appears on our charter sign. The most recent shares have been books by Dave Eggers, Joshilyn Jackson, Dean Koontz, Sarah MacLean, and Nicola Yoon.
Kids’ books don’t repopulate quite as well as the adult books do, and they tend to go quickly in nice weather, so we’re preparing to share more soon. We recently got our first kid-crafted thank-you note, which made our hearts grow about three sizes and made the four rounds of building revisions feel completely worth it.
Anything with a current media tie-in is popular. Reaching for the Moon, the autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (of the film Hidden Figures), is a middle grade book that I was happy to see disappear within a few days. Emma went quickly, and I just put out our third (and last) copy of Little Women. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and the Outlander books have been well received, as have books by Elizabeth Acevedo, Agatha Christie, John Grisham, Shannon Hale, Erik Larson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle, and Liane Moriarty. Despite the ubiquity of online recipes and cooking blogs, I’m happy to report that people still appreciate good cookbooks. Especially if they’re for the Instant Pot.
Who knows? If the book-sharing magic softens my hermitism enough, maybe our community of book sharers will be sharing an Instant Pot stew by summertime. But probably not. Reading and sharing books is just fine with me.
My (Community) Bookshelf was originally published in Tracking Changes (Spring 2020 edition). Members receive a PDF of the quarterly Tracking Changes newsletter by email.
Header photo by Dawn McIlvain Stahl
