9 years ago
15
What's Wrong With a Little Free Library?
Three years ago, The Los Angeles Times published a feel-good story on the Little Free Library movement. The idea is simple: A book lover puts a box or shelf or crate of books in their front yard. Neighbors browse, take one, and return later with a replacement. A 76-year-old in Sherman Oaks, California, felt that his little library, roughly the size of a dollhouse, "turned strangers into friends and a sometimes-impersonal neighborhood into a community...
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http://www.theatlantic.com
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+4Submitted 9 years ago by Traveler
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+2Submitted 8 years ago by AdelleChattre
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I love Little Free Libraries. I think they're a great idea and it's upsetting that people feel the need to complain about them. :(
The ridiculousness if this never fails to piss me off.
This is like the yard police, oh my god your fence is 1.5" spaced instead of 2" spaced, you'll need to tear it down. At one time cities were run as cities, today they feel like heavy handed homeowners associations and that's saying something considering HOA's are already asshats with too much power.
The existence of HOAs makes me sad for humanity. If you aren't breaking the law, you should be able to do whatever you want with your house and yard.
I'm all for them trying to make the area look nice, but some of their things are stupid. My HOA forced my neighbor to get rid of the kiddy pool his kids were playing in. They "allowed" him to keep it there for the rest of the day, but after that it had to be hidden from the street.
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This is actually a great idea. I have a ton of books I've already read, but... how so I get my neighbors to find out about it? The suburbs are real frigid and not a great place to socialize. As a matter of fact, I moved here a month ago and only yesterday did I find out my neighbor's a chick, and I didn't even talk to her, I just saw her from far off.
Bake a cake, walk up to her house, ring the doorbell, give her the cake and say: "Hi. I'm your new neighbour". Cake always breaks the ice. :)
Time to buy some cake, then!
I just discovered a Little Free Library around the corner from where I live. It's placed a few feet back from the sidewalk in a house similar to the one in the picture. If you put it in a visible spot, your neighbors will eventually find it, and hopefully spread the word. There's always going to be joggers and walkers, no matter how much your suburbs lack a community. Or you could place an add in the newspaper advertising it, or on craigslist, or if your town has a community forum, mention it there.
When I was in Polebridge, MT last year I saw something very similar. The only difference is that in Polebridge, population 52, this was their one and ONLY library.
Here are a couple of photo links: http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pWomtV4NUqY/U9sZtd-4X2I...AAAAAm4U/3PrcFThKtRI/s640/20140731_140420.jpg http://lh3.ggpht.com/-90Q8JdnBdMs/U9sZz-fsVqI...AAAAAm4c/PSfyQqB9EnE/s640/20140731_140444.jpg
And another with my dog, Joanie: http://lh4.ggpht.com/-tHWZWKZ37m8/U9sZkHP0n5I...AAAAAm4M/FB45pPh7yzE/s640/20140731_140404.jpg
Some people just like to complain. I have a neighbor that sends out a list of issues they have about every single house in the neighborhood that has thing such as when trash is brought out to be collected, where people park in community parking areas, time of day lawns get mowed, how frequently those lawns get mowed, how many trees should be allowed in a yard, putting offensively colored cars in garages (she doesn't like the dark orange camaro with black racing stripes), starting motorcycles in driveways (they should be PUSHED out of earshot), and so on. You might think it sounds like some batty old lady, but no, a woman in her 50's that has been at it for 2 decades. I feel sorry for her children and pets.
There was something like this near me a few years ago, people just ended up vandalizing it.
There are a few LFL in my neighborhood that I've seen, and they neither obstruct anything (vehicle or person as the case may be) or mar the aesthetics of the places where they reside. People really will complain about anything and everything when they can, I guess.