Take a Book. Share a Book. - Little Free Library
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Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization with a mission to build community, inspire readers, and expand book access for all through a global network of volunteer-led Little Free Libraries.

I’m being gifted a “Little Free Library” for my birthday and I’m super excited to get started.

This is the one on the way:

https://shop.littlefreelibrary.org/collections/little-free-libraries/products/composite-double-door-cottage-blue-little-free-library?variant=43439460974741

While they’re good at listing the EXTERNAL dimensions, they don’t really cite the INTERNAL dimensions.

Any idea? I’ve never had to shop for books by size before. LOL.

I’ve got MORE than a few ideas after working in an actual library and bookstores for years and years, but I’m interested to know…

If size were no object, what books would YOU give away for free? 🤔

  • James 🌈💜
    6•1 year ago

    @jordanlund I prefer the 5x8" book size, and I think that’ll work really well for your lil library.

    Unfortunately, if you were to go with my favourite book series, Wheel of Time, that’d be all you have room for.

    So… Winnie the Pooh, Muddleheaded Wombat, Looking for Alibrandi, some Animorphs, maybe Tomorrow When the War Began, Fairytales for Wilde Girls.

    • Jordan LundOPEnglish
      3•1 year ago

      For stuff like a series, I’m planning on feeding it one book at a time. No point putting out ALL of the Wheel of Time, that would just scare somebody, but Eye of the World works. Someone grabs that then put out the Great Hunt.

  • @[email protected]English
    6•1 year ago

    You can go to second hand bookstores and grab lots of books for a much better price to stock the library with! Also worth keeping a bunch of extras to restock as needed. People are suppose to put stuff back into the libraries but not sure how the take vs. return ratios are.

  • iByteABit [he/him]
    3•1 year ago

    Didn’t know about this organisation, I love the idea!

    I’d like to build one in my neighborhood if I can

  • @[email protected]
    2•1 year ago

    The ones where I live tend to fill up on their own over time. Although I do like to redistribute between them when walking, which helps the process.

    If I had a Little Free Library, eventually I’d have to give real thought to what to do about books no one wants that have been clogging up the library for like a year, whether they go to the public library for their book sale or what.

    • Jordan LundOPEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      That’s going to be interesting to me, monitoring what gets taken and what gets left.

      • @[email protected]
        2•1 year ago

        There was one house that kept theirs well stocked with interesting things, but someone or someones with cars would come and steal everything out of it. The family gave up eventually in great sadness and gave the library to a neighbor. I haven’t seen any big sudden emptying-outs in quite a while, so maybe it was just one asshole who moved or went to jail for something or who knows what.

        One library was taken up as a home by wasps (and yet I could see through the window that the books kept changing, so they must have been somewhat docile wasps!), and one library got warped in rain and their books get moldy in the rainy season, so do keep paying attention to the condition of your library.

        • Jordan LundOPEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          Yeah, I hope it doesn’t just get pillaged. We’ll see!

  • Jordan LundOPEnglish
    1•1 year ago

    I’m a data guy so I’ll totally be measuring that! LOL.