Books, Donations, and Little Libraries. This Week at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Books, Donations, and Little Libraries

I was walking by a bench last week and saw a paperback laying on it with no one around.  That’s a sight I can never resist so I walked over and picked it up.  Jane Austen’s Emma looked up at me all worn and obviously well read.  I opened the cover and there was a bookplate that read “Read me and Leave me for someone else to Enjoy.”  As tempted as I was to take it home, I left it where it was because I had read it , taking a leap of faith just much as the reader who left it there that someone who would need it would pick it up, read it, and then pass it on in another spot.  A book chain of love and letters hooking people together.

It did get me thinking of course…

Where do old books go?  Those beloved paperbacks, those dogeared, slightly yellowed copies of stories that sit on shelves and then you wonder what to do with?  Maybe you have several copies of the same book, having bought it a couple of times over, not remembering it was already in your collection (aye, the number of times that happened to me).  Maybe you were somewhere and just had to read it again…spur of the moment binge reading! Yep! That happens too.t didn’t stop there.

My neighborhood is sort of quirky. We have all sorts of people living here, ages, races, families, always have, its sort neat and packed away in a hollow where the houses don’t really turnover, Bernie Sanders signs never age, and everyone seems to know one another and argue over turtles in emails online.   So I wasn’t surprised to see a neighbor with a car whose cars are always sagging under the weight of books go slowly down our road, loaded to the roof once again.

Turns out she collects them for Free Libraries. Everywhere.  Should have known someone who helps me liberate shrubs headed for the landfill would do that.

Not familiar with Free Libraries?  LIttle Free Libraries?  Be still my heart!  They are cropping up everywhere!  In parks, front lawns, neighborhood circles, anywhere you can think to put a small box…that’s a place for a free library.  Load it up with books.  Take one, replace it with one.  There’s a site online with instructions on how to make boxes like the one above?  Kim Fielding even   wrote a wonderful story called, of course, The LIttle LIbrary!.

It’s a wonderful way to share those books that overpopulate your shelves and attic while sharing your enthusiasm.  And in a way you are becoming another link in the chain of people connected by  their love of books, worlds outside their own, and a need for something more.

Want to know more?  Check out

Little Free Library | Take a Book • Share a Book

This Week at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Sunday, September 9:

• The Enchanter’s Flame by Michele Notaro Blog Tour
• A Stella Review: Courted by Sarah Hadley Brook
• A Stella Review:  Patchwork Paradise by Indra Vaughn
• Books, Donations, and Little Libraries
• This Week at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Monday, September 10:

• Review Tour – RJ Scott – Second Chance Ranch
• Blog Tour Calling Calling Calling Me by Natasha Washington
•  BLITZ High Time by Keelan Ellis
• A Lucy Review: Falling into Love (Family Found #1) by Kris T. Bethke and Nell Iris
• A Barb the Zany Old Lady Review: Second Chance Ranch (Montana #5) by R.J. Scott
• A MelanieM Review: Dawn and Dusk (Day and Knight #3) by Dirk Greyson
• A Stella Review: Calling Calling Calling Me by Natasha Washington

Saturday, September 15:

• New Release Blitz Tour – Leta Blake’s Any Given Lifetime
• The Hunt by J.M. Dabney & Davidson King Release Blitz
• An Ali Review:  On Andross Station by J.C. Long
• A MelanieM Review: Loving A Warrior by Melanie Hansen