Book Exchange

My Little Free Library has been getting pretty decent usage (and turnover).  I'd say about half or even 2/3rd of the books I seeded it with have been taken out.  I expect things might actually pick up a bit now that it is warming up (so very slightly).  People should be a bit more willing to stop and look through it.  (One slightly interesting thing is that when it was so very cold out, the door actually stuck, but now it is back to working properly.  I find that odd, as I would have thought the wood would have contracted so very slightly, and the door should have stuck less.  Well, I may sand it down just a bit more anyway.)

It is particularly gratifying that people are leaving books as well as taking them.  I had come fairly close to buying Cormac McCarthy's The Road (for $1 at the library book sale) just to leave it for someone else.  Well, less than a week later, someone did leave a copy of The Road, as well as Life of Pi.  Perhaps the single most amusing thing is that someone left a second copy of D.M. Thomas's The White Hotel!  Now there are a few books that have been left for some time and they don't seem to be inspiring any takers.  I'll probably leave them there through April and then take them somewhere else to be recycled.

I'm pretty close to having another stack ready to go out, including Updike's Rabbit novels and Fizgerald's translations of Homer and Virgil.  And Crumley's Dancing Bear, which I will be more than happy to part with.

At any rate, a few days ago I was biking past a Little Free Library on Victor Ave.  I saw that they had White Noise.  I decided to do an exchange, so today I brought a handful of books to leave there.  Unfortunately, White Noise was taken.  Too bad; I'll have to act faster next time.  It's kind of nice that I shouldn't have to obsessively monitor the library, but I will make sure that no one leaves any trash (literal or figurative) inside.

Edit (Update): It's a bit embarrassing to admit that I confused two of these libraries -- one on Victor Ave. and one on Riverdale Ave.  The East Side is actually pretty well served by actual libraries, as well as Little Free Libraries (and a handful of unassociated free libraries not on this map).  Though I suppose Leslieville could use one or two more...

In any case, the Riverdale one still had White Noise after all, so I picked it up and added it to my library.  I'll have to swap with something else, mostly likely one of the copies of The White Hotel.