little free library

[MadGypsy]

Do any of you have this in your city? Basically, it's a little house looking structure on a pole, and inside are books that anyone can take or you can leave a book. I know where about 6 of these are in my city. Every time I pass one I check it for either old or unique books. The last 2 days I have had some interesting scores.


Dostoyevsky - crime and punishment on cassette. Of course I have no way to actually listen to this but, in my world, this is a unique and bad-ass find. It also appears to be brand new. It's in fantastic condition.



Here is another interesting find. It's in another language and basically useless to me but, I love the old and worn vibe of the book.


edit: hmmm sorry, not sure how the last pic ended up sideways. My phone is a little goofy sometimes.

This is practically a New Orleans history book



I've found some other cool stuff but I feel like these are the most unique.

Feel free to share anything similar below

[Sgt-PieFace]

Off the top of my head I can think of the locations of 4 or 5 of these in my neighborhood

I often see books about WWII, which I LOVE. I also saw the adventures of huckleberry finn (one of the best books ever IMO).

Ill post here again if I see anything else interesting.

[Adam]

@MG
This book is all sunshine & lollipops (in a typical, long winded, classic Russian way).

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB5UoeBZxS4&list=PLOOwSORhCX7bGybFwJ7HKLKE Eraz_L3x8[/ame]

[Syluxguy28O3]

there's a shoppe mall in the next town over from where im at. when i visited there last week, i noticed one. first ive seen.

[MadGypsy]

@Adam - stuff like this, for me, is just a point of interest. I have it on an end table with a number of other bric-a-bracish things. It's little more than something a guest would notice, wonder about and appreciate for a moment. It really only gets away with even being that due to it being on a completely obsolete medium.

[MadGypsy]

I decided to walk home from work today (4 miles) because, I wanted to explore a bit. I know my city very well but, I don't know every square inch of it. I came across the biggest little free library I have ever seen. It had some really great stuff in it. I try not to be greedy so I chose the 2 things that I liked the most. That was a hard choice cause, there was a lot of interesting stuff. Below is a pic of the library. I'm sorry it's not an awesome pic, it was really dark on that corner.



My final selections were a book that is basically "the complete China" and a pocket constitution. In hindsight I wish I would have left the pocket constitution and grabbed the College edition websters dictionary. At the time, I was feeling like every American should have a copy of the constitution but, it's not like I can't go online and print one. Of course printing a college level dictionary would be ridiculous. So, yeah, I probably could have picked better.

BUT, the China book is awesome! Here's a few pics. It's over 700 pages of stuff like this.

[Dilligaf]

Several of these have popped up around neighborhoods in JC. Every so often I have to travel to Sneedville for work. There is a "Little Free Video Store" on the side of the road. It's basically a little bigger version of the book libraries. I'll try to snap a pic the next time I'm up that way.

[MadGypsy]

Little free video store?! That's awesome. I have never seen one of those in my city. I can tell you what you would absolutely never find in one if we had them. Any kung fu movie that I don't already own. Then again, that would actually be tough to supply cause I have a LOT of kung fu movies.



it doesn't look like a lot until you realize that many of these cases have 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 15 & 20 movies in them. One of them has 50. It's just under 300 movies. The 4 cases between The Raid 2 and Shaolin Warrior are 12 packs. Add that to the Martial Arts 50 pack and you have 98 movies in just 5 cases. There are obviously a lot more than 5 cases there. Very little of it is crap. Maybe 15-20 movies leave a lot to be desired. The rest is pretty much bad-ass.

[gnounc]

They often have the phrase, "Take a Book. Leave a Book."[5][6] The Little Free Library Index[7] lists locations with GPS coordinates and information.


dont forget to leave a book too.

[MadGypsy]

I have no books to leave but, I have brought back books after I read them. I'm not giving back these bad-ass sheet music books though. I am going to bring back the pocket constitution. There were 4 different Fodor China books. I'm keeping this one. Other than the 2 sheet music books, the china book and the book on tape. I have not kept any other books.

The sign says: "Take a book. Leave a book." not "Take a book and leave a book" That would be funny if the only way you are allowed to read is if you have a book to give away. The little trade library.

[gnounc]

Again from wiki:
Little Free Libraries are also referred to as community book exchanges, neighborhood book exchanges, book trading posts, pop-up libraries, and micro-libraries, [3]

"Take a book. Leave a book." is not the same thing as "Take a book OR leave a book."
It suggests you do both.

Bringing the books back is definitely in keeping with the spirit, bringing books in that you didn't get there in the first place is moreso.

Pretty awesome that these exist, I wasn't aware of them.
Wonder if there are any in my own town.

[MadGypsy]

I can't disagree with you. I can just say that I'm a very honest person and I don't feel in my heart like I have stolen anything. Truth is, there is no room in my increfibly clean an organized home to start a book collection so, if I was going to keep any more books, I would have to bring something back. At this point I would just be trading in one awesome book for an equal or better one.

I will also add that most of the time there is a whole nother box full of books next to the LFL because there isn't enough room for the surplus of books. Basically a lot of books are just getting destroyed by rain. If I left a book in many cases it would just add to the pile of dying books.

You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to try and redistribute surplus books to LFL's that have room. I can't leave books I don't even own but, I can save the ones that are becoming garbage.

I like how you only embolden the 3 of 5 descriptions that make your argument. lol. It's gonna be OK, brother.

[gnounc]

You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to try and redistribute surplus books to LFL's that have room. I can't leave books I don't even own but, I can save the ones that are becoming garbage.

Solid Move

[MadGypsy]

It has been raining since I woke up. If it stops before 3 or 4 in the morning (when I will probably go to sleep) I am going to go get those boxes, dump them out in my van and let them dry. Hopefully they won't turn into a brick. There's only so much I can do. Once they're dry, I'll ditch everything that isn't completely ruined and take a little trip around the city filling up LFL's that have room. And then you can get off my back about stealing books. (jk) For the record: If it was Take a book. Leave some money. I'd probably end up leaving more than the book is even worth. I'm not cheap at all. ...A lifetime of working for tips and bonuses. And I'm not poor either.

I wish I would have thought to do this a week or so ago. I fear that nothing will be salvageable.

If we had a little free video store here I have over 1000 non-kung fu movies that I would be more than happy to straight up give away. They're taking up a lot of shelf space that I could use for, well, books. Hmmm, maybe I could change the game. Take a book. Leave a movie. Why not, right? I got that book on cassette from an LFL. That's not really a book. It's not even usable. Who still owns a cassette player? I know I don't. I could even leave them as a surplus to the side of the LFL. Wet DVD's matter not. I could even stick the paper cover inside the dvd case. Voila, mint DVDs rain or shine.

unrelated: I'm only 330 posts away from my 6th pent posts. The fact this is my 3666th post is what made me think of that.