Little Free Libraries

Maybe you've seen one of these in your community, or maybe you've only seen them on the internet, but Little Free Libraries are popping up everywhere and have become quite famous throughout this country and a country or two overseas.  They're little boxes mounted on a tree, set up in someone's front yard, or some other public place - a place where people can come up and either take any book they want or leave a few.

At a park near my home where The Boss and I can be found frequently has one such box, and I check it regularly. I've taken books, I've left books. The other day I took two paperbacks to donate, and inside discovered a little treasure. Before scrolling down to see the answer, look real hard at the pic and see if you can spot it.

Yep, my eagle eye zoomed in on it right away, and I snatched it out of there quicker than Gollum trying to steal back The Ring.

Sure, it's ten years old. But that someone thought to donate that instead of just throwing it away made me happy. It's in super good condition, especially considering its age, and it has a few authors featured whom I'm not familiar with. (Soapbox Rant to Follow - Feel free to skip: I also noticed that ten years ago, this pulp used to put the address label on the back of the magazine instead of dead center on the front like they do now. My Cheesy Readers have read my complaints about that before - how the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction covers up the cover art of their publication. But now we know this wasn't always the case. Ten years ago it was on the back. When my subscription started it was on the bottom of the front cover, and suddenly these past few issues it's moved to dead center on the cover. It just begs the "why" questions again: Why cover up the artwork? Why not move it back to the back where it used it be? End of Soapbox Rant)


The lesson here is if you do happen to stumble upon one of these mini-libraries take one brief moment to browse the titles, maybe take a book or two, return them when you're done, or if you decide you want to keep them, donate replacements. Tell you reader friends, encourage them to do the same. Keep the movement going. You'll never know who you'll make happy with a "new" book, but it is guaranteed that you will make someone happy, and that's all that matters.

Until Next Time...
Mini-ly Yours,
Michael