A Little Free Library Run

I’ve built up quite a stack of books that I wanted to donate to Little Free Libraries around my area. (A quick description: Little Free Libraries are operated by individuals who want to spread some bookish love to their community. You set up a little stand and fill it with books. The idea is that people will “take a book, leave a book,” although you don’t have to leave a book in order to take one. And you also don’t have to take a book if you’re leaving one! It’s all about building a free resource for people to access books that’s separate from a public library.)

I’m lucky to live in a place where there are dozens and dozens of LFLs all around me and it’s always such a joy to add lots of good books to these spots. In my Notes app, I have a list of the LFLs near me that I love the most so on Saturday, I packed up two reusable bags of books and hit the road to add some love.

Unfortunately, I quickly started to realize that my favorite LFLs are in areas of my city that were deeply affected by Helene and Milton. In fact, the first LFL I visited (and one of my favorites) was no longer there and all of the houses in the vicinity had belongings and drywall stacked up on their lawns, waiting for it all to be taken away by the city. Ugh. It broke my heart so much! I’m hoping they will be able to rebuild the LFL after dealing with their homes.

After that experience, I was apprehensive about whether I would be able to accomplish my goal, but I plugged the next location into Google Maps and said a prayer. Thankfully, this adorable little spot was up and running (even though the hurricanes had also ravaged this neighborhood).

Look how cute it is! Unfortunately, it’s a little on the small side due to the way it was built so I had to shove some of my smaller books into the LFL and also picked out a cute romance (mostly to make room for more of my books but this one piqued my interest).

Books donated: Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen, The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery, and Anne of the Island by Anne M. Montgomery. 

My next experience at a LFL was also rather sad. I entered another neighborhood filled with debris and belongings and drywall littering lawns, another stark reminder of what our city went through in late September/October and how much farther we have to go to get back to normal. The LFL in this neighborhood was up and in such a beautiful spot, but when I opened the door to place in some books, I was immediately accosted by the smell of mildew and damp books. Oh, it broke my heart! This LFL must have been flooded during the storms with the owner unable (or perhaps didn’t realize it would get flooded as badly as it did) to move it. I wasn’t sure if I should put any books in this library, but ultimately, I dropped off a few. Maybe I shouldn’t have but I wanted to give this neighborhood something to enjoy.

Books donated: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty, Family Family by Laurie Frankel, Mercury by Amy Jo Burns, and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

I ventured on to my next destination and this is one of my favorite LFLs in my city. It’s such a big and beautiful library and in such an unassuming part of town. Most LFLs are on the lawns of homes but this one hangs out near the parking lot of a multifamily condominium near some industrial buildings. Well, someone around here is a bookworm who wanted to set up something fun for the locals. This LFL was a little sad so I filled ‘er up with a lot of books!

Books donated: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Plan B by Anne Lamott, Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama, The Firm by John Grisham, Full Circle by Andrea Barber, Good Talk by Mira Jacob, Love & Saffron by Kim Fay, The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker-Bradley, and We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

My next location is the LFL that always messes with me! The actual library is on the corner of this adorable house, but because I plug the house address into my GPS, I always drive right past it and have to turn around. But I found it and it was also a bit neglected so I decided to fill this one up with the rest of my books. At this point, I was doing well finding some LFLs that were still up and running and didn’t want to press my luck by visiting some of the other addresses on my list.

Books donated: Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple, The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena, The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare, On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, and Happiness Falls by Angie Kim.

And that was my afternoon of being a book fairy! I love filling up LFLs with lots of good books and since I had already filled up these libraries in the past with some books, it was fun to see that all of my donations were gone. They were living new lives in new homes and that is such a delight. I really want to build and operate my own LFL someday, so maybe that will be a goal for 2025.

Do you have any LFLs near you?