Tuesday 5 May 2020

Little street libraries

have appeared in several different locations near us.
I noticed the first one about three weeks ago. It was simply a very large plastic box full of books on top of a fence. There was a label which said,
     "Please borrow."
As I pedalled past a  young man arrived and put two books into the box and then started browsing through the rest. I hope he found something to read.
On further travels I found one outside a church. That was a specially built little hut. The notice there suggested borrowing an donating. It was looking well used. I hope that whoever was responsible for it picked up the bag of books someone had left there - before it rained.
Out of curiosity I checked the two tiny shelves at the "hole-in-the-wall" type coffee shop opposite the supermarket. They are still open for take-away coffee. Were there books on the shelves? Yes, a few - although not as many as usual.
I have since seen another row of books along a fence. No doubt they were taken in at night. There were two people - apart - browsing those.
And yesterday I found another one. This one was a very serious one indeed. It was on a corner,  in the wall of a building which had once been one of those old fashioned corner shops. Someone has put proper shelves in and it is about the size of a small bookcase. There is a note there about please not putting books on the ground or the seat.
Yes, there is a seat there too. It's a quiet area - at least at the moment. People could sit there and read for a while.
The books in all these are paperbacks of varying degrees of shabbiness. Most of them are what might be called "popular light literature" I suppose - but so what? It might be the very thing we need right now. People are reading and sharing. The library may not be open so they have found a way around it for those out on a walk with the dog. 
This morning I am going to pedal out and put a few on the shelves of the corner shop library. That way someone else can "escape" for a few hours - without going too far at all. 

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