Learning the Big Story of Little Free Libraries

My first memory of discovering a Little Free Library dates back to 2011. 

I was running on the Manhan Rail Trail in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where I lived at the time, and right there, where the path meets Union Avenue, was a tiny little library, full of books. And they were free. I stopped running, poked around through the titles and decided to take one home with me. 

That library was the coolest thing, and I assumed some local person had conceived of the idea, designed the inviting little wooden library and filled it up with books he or she did not want. 

Over time, I began seeing little free libraries pop up here and there. There are now at least a half dozen in Easthampton, and there are equally as many here in Laconia, New Hampshire, where I live now. 

Many a book have I deposited in these libraries to pass onto others, and I have also taken my fair share as well.

When I walk my 4-year-old granddaughter Phoibe in a stroller in her Holyoke neighborhood, there are two little libraries we frequent. As we get close to each one, we talk about whether there will be a good book for each of us, and there almost always is. 

Until this year, I assumed each little library was individual—many literary fairies putting out good reading materials. I figured the idea was just catching on.

I learned otherwise only recently, when I began to take a deeper interest in these libraries.

Back in 2020, I put out a second memoir called “Willful Evolution,” and seconds after I did, COVID shut down all possibilities for readings and events. When things finally opened up, I had lost interest in the book.

A few months ago, though, as I contemplated the 200 copies I ordered when I thought I would be doing events and reading from the book, I had the idea to distribute them, one at a time, in little free libraries. I tuck a little card in each with information on how to find me online, and I ride around and put one copy in each library I know about.

In my car, I have a box full of my books, and when I pass a library, I make a U-turn, and then make a deposit.

After seeing one after the other of these libraries I realized there is an overarching nonprofit organization that has a mission to bolster literacy.

Learn more about Little Free Library, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, in my next post.