As you might remember, on July 24th, I celebrated the eighth anniversary of my first blogpost! I've already told you how I celebrated with a book haul... but did you know that I also did a bit of an UN-haul, as well? I packed up some handmade bookmarks, eight past reads that I was willing to part with, and my younger brother - he got some driving practice hours on his permit - while I unloaded some new material at little free libraries in my area!
There were four total, and by our area, I mean that the closest one was five minutes driving time away, and the furthest was only about ten. We zoomed around our neck of the woods for a little over an hour distributing the goods and taking pictures, and it was a fun and unique way to spend a summer afternoon!
the bookmarks
Naturally, I wanted to give a handmade touch to my bookish donations. It's not like I can just leave them in there without any kind of note or anything! (For the record: yes, you can totally leave them without any kind of note, and, in fact, it is what most people do.)
However, it was my bloggoversary, and I wanted to celebrate it a little bit, so I left these bookmarks tucked within some of the books' pages, inviting people to use them while they were reading. Naturally, I left my Instagram username and blog address on the back... and who knows? Maybe someone will comment on my blog or Instagram, and tell me that they've decided to borrow one of the novels I dropped off!
the books
The selections that were already present at the little free libraries were not all that great for adults - lots of kids and puzzle books, and not a whole lot of lengthier novels or otherwise solid reading material! - which made me feel good about the ones I've left behind. All of these are books I've either previously read, and didn't necessarily want on my shelves anymore, or ones that had just been languishing on my TBR for too long, and just had to admit to myself that I wasn't going to read.
Because there were a total of four libraries near me, and it was my eighth bloggoversary, I decided that I would be dropping off two at each stop!
the wrath and the dawn and the rose and the dagger, renee ahdieh
zelda, nancy milford
love warrior, glennon doyle melton
pink sari revolution, amana fontanella-khan
as if! the oral history of clueless, jen chaney
final girls, riley sager
a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, dave eggers
This was all my first-ever interaction with a little free library in the wild, and I have to say, it was pretty fun! They were easy to spot and easily accessible from the street, and every single one had at least one shelf of books inside it already.
The stewardship of these little guys seemed to be pretty great, with almost all of them having different things to please users, be it exterior decorations, or a stack of bookmarks piled up just on the inside, for people to take from. One even had a little visitor's journal, in which people could write notes about what they picked up or dropped off on their visit, or leave a brief review of a book they enjoyed!
I can totally see having something like this in my front yard when I'm older. It seems like not only a great way to give back to your community and foster a love of reading directly in your neighborhood, but also a means of easily recycling old reading material. I can't wait to go back... if only to check out whether my books have been picked up or not!
Have you ever visited a Little Free Library? Have you ever considered being a steward to one? Let me know, in the comments below!
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