#bookgivingday

I remember the first time I came across a Little Free Library. It really changed my view on books and book sharing.

I live in a bigger city but I ended up meeting my first Little Free Library on a country road in the northern part of Michigan. I was riding a bike down a dirt path when I saw what looked like a gigantic bird house. I had to turn around and check it out.

This particular library was a cute little red house with a window acting as a door on the front. I looked inside and saw a bunch of books. I had never seen anything like it before. The plate at the top had the registration number for this particular little free library and a website where you could find out more information. I didn’t get good service where I was at but luckily I didn’t need to go to the website to know what to do. There was a little hand written note that said “take a book home with you, and leave one if you have one to spare”. I laughed. What a cool idea! I didn’t have a book on me but I did pick a few books out to take back with me.

Once I was back in the city I looked up the website. There were so many little free libraries around town. There were a few just a street or two away from me. I got really pumped and made a plan. I went to my bookshelf and honestly looked at which books I could part with and which ones I couldn't. It wasn’t a very big give away pile. Then I thought of how many books there were in the Little Free Library up north. Those books probably meant a lot to the people who owned them and they put them where others could enjoy and appreciate them. I started again sorting through my books. There were the ones that I knew I just couldn’t part with. There were quite a few though that I loved but would probably never read again. The materialistic side of me said “what if a friend wants to borrow this” and “you’ll regret it once you get rid of it” and “what if you want to pass these books down to kiddos your friends have”. I stood my ground though and put all of the books in a box and headed to my car,