Category: Little Free Library

30 Days of Bookish Gratitude: Little Free Library

An open book on top of a stack of closed books with text '30 Days of Bookish Gratitude' and subtitle about reading, writing, and literary topics.

I’ve written about my love for Little Free Library before. (Hey, it was even a Booking Through Thursday prompt.)

As I’ve mentioned, I’m a Little Free Library steward, and the library was one of our pandemic projects. You can read about how it started and how it’s going. Truth be told, we really do need to refresh the paint, something we didn’t manage to do this year.

One of the things I love is the people I get to meet. There are the steward meetups, of course, and book-packing sessions. But I also get to know the people who visit my library.

There’s the woman with her therapy dog who stops by for children’s books. Families who take walks with their children, each carrying a book to exchange.

And, just the other day, a woman stopped by to drop off a book—but not just any old book. She told me her sister, a librarian, had died over the summer. And as a librarian, her sister had amassed a huge collection of books. To honor her sister and the books, the woman has been seeking out Little Free Libraries so these books can find a new home.

The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell now resides in my Little Free Library. I’m telling you, it classes up the place.

Book-packing event

I was going to write a bit more about libraries, along with how I’m approaching this current revision. However, I attended a book-packing event yesterday at the Little Free Library headquarters in St. Paul.

It was so much fun. Between packing books for shipment across the country and taking some for our own libraries, I think we cleared out the two big bins of donated books. I was able to restock my own library, which has been looking a little thin lately. Someone has already snagged the really cool dinosaur book I brought back.  

But now? Well, now. I. Am. Tired.

So I’ll save my musings for next week, but leave you with these beautiful murals on the building’s exterior. I especially love the optical illusion with the butterflies.

Reader mural
Butterfly mural

Little Free Library: spooky edition

We got spooky this past weekend with the Little Free Library. Not only that, we had some little free pumpkins as well.

I feel compelled to point out that all the candles are LEDs, not wax and flame. Before Halloween, I bought a handful of spooky children’s books, which went fast.

Then on Halloween, I added the candles and the table with the pumpkins and the candy.

After that? Well, as you can see, it was spooky.

Little Free Library: currently on offer

Currently on offer this week: great books and a lot of variety.

Some fantasy and speculative fiction, an awesome WWII novel, some fun middle grade and young adult books, a little nonfiction, plus a handful of books for the small set.

And plenty of sunshine for reading in the park.

Little Free Library: How it’s going

So, we’re officially official! My Little Free Library is up and ready for reading.

You’ll notice we opted for the easy, screw-in library post. We are not digging holes for this. (That being said, I did check with all the utility/cable companies to make sure we wouldn’t hit anything crucial or dangerous).

Wouldn’t you know, we’ve been in a drought all summer, and the moment we set up the library, we get rain. You’re welcome.

But! The library really is waterproof, and we apparently added enough coats of varnish to the wood that the design is holding up just fine. (I say we, but you know, my daughter.)

I loaded it up with some books and then hoped for the best.

You guys, people are already finding it. They’ve taken books to read and dropped some off as well. Someone brought a handful of children’s books for the small set. I have mostly middle grade, young adult, and adult titles, so this was a boon.

I literally check it several times a day (I’m outside anyway, and hey, it’s better than scrolling social media), and every time I see a new book or that one has vanished, it’s like a gift.

The local Barnes and Noble was having a 50% off book haul sale, so I stopped in and picked up a few more titles as well.

In the months to come, I hope to have even more fun with this: theme months, featured authors, and so on. But for now, I couldn’t be happier.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I need to step outside and check on my library.

Little Free Library: How it started

So, I’ve wanted a Little Free Library probably from the first time I ever spotted one. This year, for Mother’s Day, I decided to buy one for myself.

It didn’t take long to reject the idea of building one from a kit. That wasn’t happening. An unfinished one, however? That my daughter could paint as a Mother’s Day present?

Totally doable.

People, it took us at least a month to figure out how we wanted to paint it. An entire month. But have you seen some of the designs? So amazing. We scoured Pinterest board after Pinterest board. Then, one day, I said:

“What about a Starry Night library?”

And an idea was born.

The first thing we did (I say we, but it was really my daughter) was prime the entire library with exterior house paint primer. Then my daughter bought some good acrylics.

The problem with acrylics is they’re not weather-proof, so once the painting was all done, we (again, she) gave it several good coats of an oil-based sealer.

Of course, once you paint your library, you have to get it into the ground.

But that’s a post for another day.