Is this a thing outside Seattle? These little bookcases can be found in the more pleasant neighbourhoods, where the...
Is this a thing outside Seattle? These little bookcases can be found in the more pleasant neighbourhoods, where the well-to-do-but-not-filthy-rich live, always on private residential property. One is enjoined to take a book or leave a book; I’ve never done either though occasionally on my walks I’ll stop and read a few pages of one.
The books themselves tend to be pretty much what you might find in a garage sale, or a bookseller leftover sale, though it’s variable, and I suspect the better selections involve a certain amount of curation by the owner. But the cases themselves are almost always in good condition. I’ve rarely seen one with glass broken or even the door left open.
I’m thinking they act partly of a display of upper-middle class “books & education” values, and partly as a signal of neighbourhood gentility. One can imagine that such street furniture, barely more protected than house furniture, would not last long in a “bad” neighbourhood, but here their good condition lends cosy reassurance.
I saw these in Seattle, in Colorado, and in Minnesota. I think it’s a lovely idea.
We have these here. I picked up a book on Russian morphology from one.
I’ve never seen one of these in my life (here in the UK).
I’ve seen a few in London. Not outside, but there’s one in Conway Hall and one in Oval tube station.
they were called “Little Free Library”s, but then the founding org trademarked the term and has been trying to enforce it to control the bottleneck to generate funding and I don’t know what the generic will be
