![]() The next morning, I got to work, snapping pictures for my IG account posting on Nextdoor and Facebook, mentioning it to everyone I encountered, and basically forcing anyone dropping off packages or working on our street to take a look-see inside the library. Had I set myself up for failure? Was anyone actually going to drive down our bucolic suburban street to pick up a copy of Station Eleven as the world worried about its own pandemic? ![]() (Dead end!)Īs in, I live on a very small, dead-end street with no through traffic other than my own neighbors-who had been very excited and supportive-but still, how many books were they going to take? I lay in bed wondering what I’d been thinking. The Kinks song “Dead End Street” rattling around in my brain. It took about two months for the ground to thaw (and a broken piece to be replaced), but the Diamond Nature School Little Free Library, sandwiched between my mailbox and my neighbor’s trash cans, officially opened on April 26, 2021. ![]() My library (charter #1195960), purchased on the website, is officially registered as the “Diamond Nature School Little Free Library,” chosen by my four kids for the silly name we came up with in 2020 when we suddenly found ourselves learning from home and, by extension, the great outdoors, during COVID-19. (Think: Violet Beauregarde in her blueberry form in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.) Now, I might have chosen something in a more subtle gray, but “Blue Betty,” her affectionate nickname, has grown on me. It took 45 years, but last February, my family (parents, husband, kids) “surprised me”-I may have strongly hinted-with a Little Free Library for my birthday. This Little Free Library-a booksharing box with no obligation to return the book or leave anything in exchange-seemed like the next natural step on my bibliophile journey. ![]() And heavy boxes of books have followed me on every move. I’ve been a member of my book club (cleverly called “Our Book Club Has No Name”) for at least 14 years. My bat mitzvah theme was “books.” (Yes, really.) And my parents wrote to all my favorite authors (Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, Lois Lowry) to tell them what a fan I was-and they all sent back congratulatory cards and signed books. bestsellers? Despite my self-imposed anxiety, it has brought me nothing but joy. Is there enough turnover? Enough diversity in titles and authors? The right balance of the classics vs. You see, being a “steward” of a Little Free Library, as we’re known, is a bit like returning to middle school, when the biggest concern was: Do people like me? Am I wearing the right thing? Am I cool enough to sit at the lunch table with the popular kids? But now I stress about whether people are driving up to my Towson lending library and taking books. I call out a “thank-you” to her before retreating into my house-the kids can wait-and hiding in my kitchen until she’s gone. “I took two and left two in exchange,” she says. “Take as many as you want,” I reply, trying not to sound overly enthusiastic. Like, you already know it, but it’s so validating when someone else says it. It’s like a stranger telling you how gorgeous your kid is. “I just loooove your library,” she calls out. ![]() Not wanting to scare her off, I freeze on my porch. As I rush toward my minivan, there’s a car parked in front of my house and a woman is pulling a book from my Little Free Library, a sort of public bookcase installation on my front lawn. It’s a warm fall day as I pull open my front door, hurrying to pick up someone from somewhere, which is your daily existence when you’re the mother of four kids. ![]()
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