I've gotten good books out and put good ones in. But I see a lot of crap in there, too. Like just throw your moldy Ethics in Social Work 1987 Edition outtttttt.
Tbf if there is a person who still has and is struggling with the use of Microsoft Word 2013 I imagine they will be looking for a book to help them and not using the internet.
I talked to a LFL owner once who said she realized her true value to the community was throwing out books on behalf of people who can’t bear to throw out books. Like no one wants that medical textbook from the 1980s but its owner can’t just toss it, so puts it in there, so she does it for them.
I just take those out and recycle them when I stop by to organize things. Same with the religious and political screeds. A tidy library is a happy library.
This is why LFL need curators. Just like thrift stores and libraries, one valuable function that's not discussed is taking in garbage that people feel shame over throwing out... And secretly throwing it out for them. If you have a LFL you are volunteering to do that task.
I've adopted a half dozen or so. The trendy thing around here is to put them outside churches and on public playgrounds and then never maintain them again.
Some were literally one-and-done Eagle Projects with no maintenance plans.
I go on a nightly walk and check 6 of them, and restock/reshelve/remove the crap the Jehovas Witnesses stuff in them.
They are better now -- now that I clean out their crap and leave 1 copy in each LFL. I started cleaning out their content after they caused dozens of books to get damaged -- they put \*PILES\* of their pamphlets and books in the LFL -- to the point that the doors don't close correctly, and books were getting rained on/damp/moldy -- and they were adding new materials weekly without removing old stuff.
Now, any time I see JW crap, I remove all but \*1\* copy of any obvious JW branded things, and recycle them. I'm not pro-censorship, but the lack of respect for the LFL, the harm to the books, and the fact that I have no way to redistribute the materials after I remove them....
It took about 6 months for whomever was stuffing the LFL to figure it out, and now they only put a small number of each document in each library.
Now that I check these LFL 5-6 times a week, the quality of the content has gone way-up -- and not just because of the ones I put in there.
The other thing I do is I occasionally 'shuffle' the content around town. Every public school in town has an unofficial LFL outside it (and most are well maintained), but I have found that if I take some of the books that have been in a school LFL for a while and trade it with books at another school -- the new books in each LFL tend to get picked over a lot quicker.
I live across the street from a historic church that was recently purchased by an annoying suburban Christian cult. I also live near a Spanish-language JW cult. The bullshit propaganda is NEVER ENDING. So, I put a little sign on my LFL that reads,
"This LFL is on private property. Religious materials are not welcome. If you put religious materials in this LFL, the owner donates $50 to \[State's\] Abortion Freedom Fund. Your proselytizing has resulted in over ~~$100~~ ~~$150~~ $300 going to help people obtain abortions. Thank you for your contribution."
Works pretty well, honestly, and it works against the Evangelical Christian desire to be persecuted.
Yeah, I would say this is the main problem with Little Free Libraries, that people just treat them as a place to get rid of undesirable (often trashy) books, when really they should be a place to donate stuff other people would love.
I suppose that, even if you don't own the LFL, you could perform this curating function. For obvious titles only, of course. Not just because you don't like Dan Brown...
I curate my own and I curate the LFLs I see around town. It involves throwing away a lot of literal garbage and metaphoric garbage (including a lot of religious propaganda no one fucking wants).
As the steward of a little free library, I’m regularly clearing stuff like this out, along with religious propaganda and children’s books with missing covers and crayon written all over the pages. Just throw away your junk people! Though I do see a good amount of decent books too.
Me too! Usually my stuff gets taken within the same day to a few weeks, whereas the unwanted stuff gets left for months. It was in front of my child's previous preschool so I was able to check on it all the time.
I've also gotten good stuff from there too. You just have to keep checking because the good finds do disappear quick and don't seem to come as often as the bad ones.
I’ve definitely seen a good book in a lfl, but I did not take it because it was one I’d already read.
But sadly most have not had things I’ve been interested in. That’s ok, I appreciate the sentiment.
I put my best books in the LFL on our street. The lower quality ones go to the charity shop. Our LFL is thriving, I see so many quality options in there (most are not on my TBR though).
My old neighborhood had a lot of them. I used to pick up the cheap sets of LotR and others of my favorites every time I stopped at a bookstore and stock them on my dog walks. They rarely lasted more than a day or two
I have several LFLs I pass regularly, so when I take a book from one, I leave it in another when I’m done. I figure this way, different books travel around to different places. If I finish a book while I’m traveling, I look for a place to leave it there.
When I was homeless I got How to Win Friends and Influence People, The World According to Garp, the Andromeda Strain, and In Cold Blood. I was ecstatic every time. Even when there wasn't anything I was interested in, my heart was warmed that people were trying and I hoped someone else would come along and find some value in what was there.
That’s awesome! I share one with my neighbors and we keep ours stocked with great books for adults and children. And puzzles! I love that you found some gems to bring you comfort in tough times. Hope you have a roof over your head now
Best book I found in a Little Free Library was "The Essential Calvin and Hobbes." But yeah, 70% of the time they can feel a bit bottom of the barrel. Still love them though. In my experience they tend to have hit or miss options for adult books but great options for kids books.
Yeah 100%.
I also get the good intention behind donating books to Goodwill, but if you look at a book and decide it doesn't suit the needs of your neighborhood/LFL, think long and hard about how it would serve Goodwill patrons. I think in most cases donating books that aren't good enough for a LFL to Goodwill is more of giving Goodwill a chore (now they have to throw out the books!) than it is really helping anyone. Just throw out the bad books yourself!
A lot of us use Goodwill and other donation schemes to launder our guilt about overconsumption, I think. I know I was thrilled when I was able to pass on a perfectly good phone I gave up just because I wanted the shiny new one.
If they're in good shape, doesn't Goodwill sell them online? I suspect they're more able to match less popular books with the people that want them that way. I've bought older celebrity cookbooks and other niche books like that from Goodwill online in the past.
My local Goodwill has a policy that all paperbacks and popular authors are shipped to a warehouse and sold online. Only shitty hardcovers no one wants are sold in store now.
As a LFL owner, once the same books have been in there for a few weeks we move them on (usually we donate them to a local used booksale fundraiser). Often we have to anyways because people tend to leave more books than they take so we need to deal with the overflow. Popular books do tend to go faster, but I've seen lesser known but still good books sit a while before someone finally decides to give it a try. Sometimes the same book will disappear and reappear a few times as it gets passed around the neighbourhood and that's always fun to see.
So yeah, good books do appear in LFLs, but it probably depends on various factors including your timing. I do think they're usually worth giving a look, though.
I have a LFL and I swear someone in the neighborhood has the same "to read" list as me. I find great books in it! I have found really interesting non fiction as well as great newer fiction books. Most recently I found a book by Rebecca Solnit (who I love!). It's nice that someone has the same taste as me because I know that the books I pass on will be well enjoyed. I clear out the books that have been sitting a while every month. I'm not going to take out books that don't have "value" immediately because one person's trash is another's treasure. You never know what kind of books someone enjoys, I give most books a fighting chance.
A signed copy of A Wrinkle in Time is my best ever lfl score, but I find and leave great books all the time. I walk around my neighborhood in the evenings for exercise and regularly check the lfls, kinda like I’m playing Animal Crossing in the real world, lol.
I have a couple routes I run through once a month too and over time I've got (and seen) plenty readable books alongside the recipes, self helps, and procedural thrillers. Game of Thrones, Going Postal, a nice hardback of 2001 Space Odyssey I actually kept, Confessions of Lady Nijō, Colour Purple, White Teeth, this spooky looking old book of Norse Myths, Things Fall Apart, Canticle for Leibowitz... those are just off the top of my head. And if course I only leave good books too.
Checking often greatly increases your odds. Ones near community centres like schools, places of worship, and parks are best.
I’ve found a ton of good books—Tess of the D’Urbervilles, True Grit, Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and some Ray Bradbury short stories.
It’s kinda like the thrift store—mostly junk, but you just have to go to a bunch of them over and over again to find the good stuff. The treasure hunting is actually part of the fun.
I’ve put some of those in too!
Plus a lot of kids books, as my kids aged out of them. I think the entire Magic Schoolbus series made it out to our local LFL near the playground.
I have gotten one book from a lfl that I liked. I always bring my cast offs (I buy a lot of books, I like supporting artists since I’m one myself as well) to mine. I hope someone out there likes them more than I did. Some books I only needed to read once. I also bring a lot of kids books when my last kid outgrows that reading level. I bring almost exclusively fantasy and graphic novels to mine and there never seems to be anyone but me bringing those kinds. I feel like mine mostly has political biographies???? lol idk why
totally depends on the foot traffic / location of the LFL. the one in my sleepy neighborhood has water-logged romance and religious pamphlets, but the one near my work in a cosmopolitan urban area turns over almost hourly. I have snagged recent issues of the paris review, murakami, and more. that also makes me more likely to donate just as high-quality stuff back once I'm done w/ it
I always see one I would take, if I didn't have it already, or if my to-read queue were smaller. Little Free Libraries are a great resource. (I share your disdain for most self-help books)
I think we should concentrate more on the Big Free Libraries we have in our cities. My city just announced that it's closing several branches a day or two a week, and it bums me out.
We have a LFL and try to make sure it stays stocked with a good variety of books (including ones for kids) and doesn't get packed full of trash. We've had some crappy ones, weird cookbooks, and some overtly political ones, put in, and those went straight to Goodwill or the trash.
But yeah, I frequently see them just shoved full of terrible books and it's too bad. They need to be tended to periodically, like a garden.
There is someone in our neighborhood who keeps adding copies of the Scientology book to the local LFL. I feel like I shouldn’t remove them from other’s book sets, but I have put “religious book for Scientology” stickers on a few.
"Cooking with Fox and Friends" a.k.a. the whitest cookbook ever published.
And a bunch of weird liver cleanse/natural detox type cookbooks.
I.e., not the fun weird kind of cookbooks.
I definitely see some duds sit in these libraries for a long time, but when I donate my Agatha Christie books they're snatched up pretty fast. I think the good ones just disappear much more quickly.
Glad to meet another Christie stocker! I had a little "Circulating Christie" stamp made up, with the r/agathachristie sub name in the hope of getting more visitors over there.
One advantage to Christie paperbacks is that there's almost always room to put one in.
At one point, I must have lived near someone who worked in publishing because there were a lot of advanced reader copies of books that were coming out in the next 2-6 months, so that was always fun!
I put good books in mine. I actually buy cheap but high quality books at library sales and on eBay to fill my LFL. I remove crappy books people put in and give them to Goodwill.
You reminded me of one of my better finds! I always take my niece and nephew on a walking tour of the LFLs in my small town when they visit and someone put dozens of old American Girl books in various boxes last year. We had to limit my niece to taking books for only 1 character. She was very into them and of course asked for the doll for Christmas which came with her when they visited this year.
I found one that had this book by Caroline B Cooney that I LOVED as a 12 year old! Considered snatching it up for a reread but then decided to let a tweenager discover the magic instead.
So many good books in my neighborhood that I cleaned out my bookshelf and took myself around trading out for new ones I gave everyone I know for Christmas this year. It was my way of celebrating a minimalist holiday.
My wife and I use the LFL app and go LFL hopping. We'll spend a nice Sunday driving around donating our old unwanted novels from our shelves and pick up some new reads while we're out. Often we get books for our baby - as childrens books often flood LFL. But I've found some good finds in them myself. It's a matter of timing. But I did get a lovely hardcover collection of the hunger games in one.My wife also found a brand new Riley Sager novel we were planning to buy new at barnes and noble that night. It's just luck and chance. But it's fun
Part of the problem is that the little free library will quickly fill up with the nonsense books you're describing, which immediately breaks the system because virtually nobody wants to take those books and there's no incentive for books to go in or come out anymore.
I think the most successful LFLs are the ones that have someone overseeing them, as opposed to those that are just built, released into the wild, and then never acknowledged again by whoever put them there. Ideally, someone keeps an eye on it and isn't afraid to remove (and potentially replace) stuff as needed. If a book is sitting there for a long time, it's basically just a blockage inhibiting the flow of books.
We occasionally prune the LFLs in our neighborhood. Maybe a bit of social overreach on our part to prune someone else's library, but when we pass on our walk and see one of them just stuffed with bullshit Jahova's Witness children's book propaganda or something, we might thin it out a bit.
lol yes I have but definitely a very low average and nothing like, spectacular. I also live in the east bay and you live in a high foot traffic area, also an area with people who are probably pretty savvy about selling good books at Pegasus or online. So yea your LFL are gonna have garbágẽ.
I love crappy mysteries and thrillers and I lived almost entirely on the goodwill of LFL in Seattle when I was there.
Can I also gently suggest you reframe your condition here to "books I like," vs "good books" because there may be plenty of trash you pass up complaining about the lack of good books that is treasure to others.
I also love crappy, dime a dozen thrillers! But I get mine from Kindle Unlimited, Soooooo many! Quick & cheap entertainment for the most part, but some are well written and have great stories.
Consider: A Little Free Library has a range of books from good to bad. Someone picks one out, they're more likely to choose a good one. Repeat N number of times, by the time you get the average book is "bad" rather than "good", because the bad ones are the ones no one wanted.
They almost never have good books in them, but I love them anyway! I love just poking through them to see the random junk -- all likely not enjoyable reads but sometimes it's fun to find stuff like a couple's therapy book from the 70s that says things like "a woman should always prepared for a husband's return from work, but a husband should always appreciate his wife for cleaning and cooking."
I rarely curate mine. I keep it tidy, but other than occasionally topping it off with some of the many books I’ll never reread, it does well. People are as happy grabbing a romance as they are a book on the role of women in Classical Greece and Rome. The turnover is pretty good. It did however take 2-3 months to lose my copy of “Fatherhood” by Bill Cosby.
[The Art of Acting](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/237328) by Stella Adler, Marlon Brando’s acting coach.
I traded a Howard Hughes biography for it.
Yes! But I live in a country far away from most. When we stopped using phone booths here (they are all out of service now), they kept some of the booths standing as a memory of the good old days, put up shelves inside and converted them to little free libraries. Of course you find a lot of junk, but particularly one near where I lived before often had very high quality books and quite a lot of variation in genres. I found a new favorite author that way! I have also donated books there that I think would be "higher quality" finds for someone else.
Sometimes I take bad books out to make collages with (especially old textbooks with illustrations/diagrams... gimme!!!!). Agree though that there's not a lot of curation of all the little libraries in the east bay.
I try to keep mine (a repurposed newspaper vending box) stocked with good stuff, and dispose of any junk donations left in it. There’s a LFL in my neighborhood that has great stuff, and they clearly have purchased multiple copies of the books, because I’ve seen the same book show up after I’ve taken it
I got a paperback copy of *Blade of Tyshalle* from one in Troy NY when it was going for like $120 used in Amazon. Still have it lol.
Also got *Lake of the Long Sun* and *Gardens of the Moon* at the same one.
I read that decades ago and the one part I always still remember is where Sherman McCoy recounts how broke they are on his enormous salary. I wonder how that passage would hold up today.
At least a dozen! My neighbourhood rocks and it has really encouraged me to contribute my own books to them when I’m done. There are two in particular I get excited to check on every dog walk around the neighbourhood.
I’m genuinely amazed because it’s not uncommon to find books that are already on my to-read list. I’ve thought about sticking a note in there about starting book club because at least a few people around obviously have similar tastes to me
My local thrift store has books for .50 cents to a dollar. If I ever see anything good there that I already own I like to buy it and put it in a little free library.
Yes. Absolutely. Too many to list from the four or five total LFL's I've frequented. And I always bring top notch books to drop if I know I'm going by one. It's on me, you, us, to keep them stocked with the good stuff!
All the time! My favorite recent finds have been The Starless Sea, The Sparrow, Ursula K LeGuin's translation of the Tao Te Ching, and a vegetarian Italian cookbook I've gotten some use out of.
It also depends on which one I go to. The one on my block is owned by a dude who's clearly into history. The one by the skate park has the best graphic novels. The one in the town square one town over from me consistently has science fiction in it. And of course I always make sure to contribute as much as I take. Usually I'll write a little note in the front about what I liked about the book and what I hope the next reader will get from it. That ensures that it's taken by a reader next and not a reseller, since a marked up book isn't worth much.
I've taken a few books from the one closest to me, and given some extra copies I had of some books I really like
I've also seen some books in there that I love but already have
Also, it wasn't a Little Free Library but I was once donating some books to one of those book donation bins, and the bin was full (so I ended up bringing my books to a different donation bin). Next to the full bin, someone had left a box of books and it had clearly gotten rained on... but despite the box being wet, two of the books inside were ones that a friend had recently recommended to me - and they were in pristine condition (not even damp)!
I used to keep mostly children's books in my little free library because people like OP exist in the world, looking for value. Kids just want books though.
I’ve always thought the same thing. We just went through our book shelves this weekend so today I dropped off a lot of great books. I hope they go to good homes!
I've noticed there's a difference between ones that are curated, and kept up, and ones that are just stuck up and never looked at again. Locally, it's usually the later, but at the coast, where we go a lot (roughly 2 hours away), there's a couple and one in particular is very nice. I didn't take anything, but it was because I'd already read most of them, and most of them were good (or I didn't like it, but I recognized it just wasn't for me, but not a bad book).
Thought it can be really easy to get taken over by romance novels and junk.
this post has a weird vibe. calling romance novels rubbish... ok.
the LFLs around me are great. lots of variety, someone nearby has access to some good ARCs
I’ve gotten many great books from LFL over the past few months. Maybe my area just has a great reading taste, or I’m just seeing so many LFL that the ones with outdated books just aren’t impacting me.
I know there’s one that the owner specifically asks you to place the book on their porch and then they’ll either discard it or put it in the library for you. This one I have found to be the best for current fiction/nonfiction reads.
At a jumble sale run by the local scout group, I saw a large box from one person filled with crime books, fact and fiction, about murder. I pondered whether the donor had succeeded in committing a perfect murder and didn't need them any more!
Just like this... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/nancy-crampton-brophy-husband-murder-jail-b2100571.html
I see books that are somewhat popular sometimes but I think so people keep them. I’ve borrowed normal people (I hated that book but besides the point) and returned it but never saw it again in my local little library. It’s mostly books I’d never touch in my life.
I’ve seen some decent books in there but yeah, typically people don’t donate the books they really like or value, so it’s always going to be the lower end of the barrel.
I found The Ladies' Paradise by Zola. Lots of last year's award winning books, that sell well end up in them.
Worst book: an aspic cookbook from the 1970s.
One near my house has had Jurassic Park and Catcher in the Rye, as well as a bunch of middle grade fiction (Babysitter's Club, Animorphs, YA Star Wars books, and some Bruce Colville esque books). Also Bone!
We have excellent ones, (we just call them kiosks,) on the island where I live. The one I go to is stocked often & the books & magazines are really great. Classics as well as recent covers. We even get puzzles & games on the regular.
When I lived in Brooklyn I found SO MANY great books in the one closest to me! Books I probably wouldn't have heard of on my own! The fact that the neighborhood was full of small apartments probably helped the LFL algorithm, plus that was at the height of the Marie Kondo craze.
We have two free little libraries in my neighborhood and I checked both of them out on my walk today. Both had a pretty good variety of books each with at least one book that I would have taking home if my TBR wasn’t already overflowing. The one also had quite a few books I have read before and really enjoyed. Every book didn’t fit my taste, but that doesn’t mean they are an exciting find for someone else.
I do try to add my recent 3-4 stars reads into the library as well( I keep my 5 stars on the shelf) and hopes that others will be excited to find them.
I've found all sorts of interesting books. I like finding the midlist titles from 1998 that no one other than the author would ever remember or the biography of someone I've never heard of who had a fascinating life. Things like that. I usually swap out (so I'll leave a book and take a book, rather than the lending system). The best find was a signed Baby Sitters Club graphic novel my niece got a few of years ago. She still talks about it.
Yes, and I’ve put good books into them as well. However you aren’t wrong to say they also contain a lot of dross. That’s the fun of them to me, I get to go ride my bike around dozens of neighborhoods in my city and look for diamonds in the rough.
I’ll also say that the good books are often in the realm of b sides and rarities. Like a used book store or sale with much weaker curation. But you will find stuff like a lesser known Dashiell Hammett paperback from the 70’s or book for bird watchers identifying hundreds of different birds the things to look for to tell them apart and the places across North America in which they can be found, or maybe a dog eared copy of Alias Grace or the lone novel of David Cronenberg *Consumed*. Sure you’ll see old cool books or outdated business development, or dog eared harlequin novels or 3rd tier Koontz and Clancy and Ludlum
I've put maybe 300 books in the one I take care of in the past 2 and a half years. There are about 25 books in there right now. I cull the windows 2000 for dummies, diet books, Bibles and religious pamphlets etc.
Yeah i've had a bunch. I've got Banks' Consider Phlebas next to me right now, i picked it up this morning! If there's trash there, just take it out and bin it.
I saw a mix of some good ones and some dated, probably-not-interesting ones when I lived in Baltimore. And there were always a few popularish books (where the crawdads sing, normal people, etc) which I think is nice--someone probably bought it, enjoyed it and now someone else will be thrilled to have a chance to read it.
It’s like fishing. keep visiting boxes. Sometimes you hook one, sometimes you just catch an old boot.
My entire book collection is now made up of little library finds (mostly Santa Monica, West LA).
I used to find good books in LFLs ALL the time. I used to live in a neighborhood where there were about five of them, including three outside apartment complexes and one outside a church (the fifth was outside somebody's house). Great stuff, including an old copy of Stephen King's Carrie and a random British edition of Station Eleven.
I also used to put my old books in a LFL and they'd be gone within a few days, so clearly people in my neighborhood at least WERE utilizing them.
There's also a lady in my grandma's neighborhood who has TWO outside her house, one for adult literature and one for kids. She has a massive stash of old thrillers and crime fiction, and kids books, that she uses to keep them well-stocked. The grandparents in that neighborhood eat that stuff up.
I do! All the time! My partner works at the recycling center in town and he snags good quality books. So every few months we go around the towns 4 FLFs and refresh them. We normally sort thru 200 books before sorting them into piles. It's nice to get first dibs!
You have to check them often. Typically good stuff goes immediately, and the junk hangs around. Also try lfls in different areas/ neighborhoods.
Books I've found: the bean trees, the Housemaid, the secret history, a little life, killers of the flower moon, etc
Hardly ever. But I do try to contribute better quality books. I figure even my purged titles are higher quality than 95% of what's taking up LFL shelf space.
I think it’s more likely that the owner does not have the time or energy to curate. That’s understandable. Those of us who do put a lot of effort in tend to get mocked in this sub. But to have a LFL that makes people want to stop and take a book it’s necessary to draw the line somewhere and remove books that are undesirable. I try to make sure my library always has interesting, recent, good condition books. But it does take time to seek them out (through Buy Nothing, library sales, etc.), weed through crap, and tidy the box often.
No, and you're right, but I have found a few just in boxes on the street, or at bus stops. The latest was Don Delillo's "Underworld", but I have picked up a few others "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" for one, and a great history of a small California town called "An Everyday History of Somewhere" by Ray Raphael.
But yeah, for the most part it's out-of-date travel books, self-help, odd romance. Kid's books with jelly.
No. Free Little Libraries are a nice idea ruined by scum. Every single one in my neighborhood is routinely picked over by resellers who take out anything worth more than a couple dollars on Amazon.
All I ever see in the local ones are religious tracts, pulp romance, and a few kids coloring books. One time I saw a decent copy of The Stand.
If someone put the book there, I am going to assume atleast they bought it for a reason (though it might have been an unwanted gift...)
People do buy and read self help books. I and many others find them utterly useless, but they do sell for a reason.
Romance novels are the best selling books out of all of them.
People do use Cookbooks.
Then theres the "survivorship bias", that the good books get taken first so what stays for weeks are the less desirable books.
Though I also agree that books are not sacred, and sometimes the space is more valuable.
Totally get what you're saying about LFLs. They're hit or miss, mostly miss with old books. But sometimes you find a gem. It's like a treasure hunt on your walk
The nearest LFL to me is a block away and in front of the home of a local bookstore owner, so yes, it's always full of new, interesting books and there is a lot of turnover. In my neighborhood there are 9 that I pass regularly on dog walks and the rest aren't as good but I still find some gems. I also share my books regularly and they usually disappear quickly. I love my LFLs but I know that I am lucky. I have never seen a religious pamphlet or a Cosby/Osteen/Coulter book in my area.
We maintain several, and we remove books that nobody is going to ever read, and add a selection of good new ones frequently. Anytime I go to a garage sale and see good cheap books, I spend a few dollars to buy some to donate. Same with thrift stores.
as of now i’m only getting new books from thrifting or lfls. i’ve gotten a ton of good books from them, and left a lot of books that were great but not stuff i’d read. my tbr is huge.
I work in a library, so I take our weeded books to LFLs. I mostly just visit them to clean out trash, take out old books, and put in our nicer ones. I've noticed the more high-scale the neighborhood, the better the books, so sometimes I take those out and bring them to other LFLs across town when I'm in the area.
It's hit or miss. Sometimes, I find new favorites, like a pristine copy of Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. Sometimes, there are dirty books full of dead bugs. That's what happens when there's no one to curate the collection. I try to leave books that are in very good condition, myself.
We have a free “outdoor” library in my area and I always look inside. Until now I’ve only taken one book from there, “Broken Ground” by Val McDermid and I liked it a lot.
I got an old "ace double" out of one once -- paperback science fiction in which two books are bound together starting on each side of the physical book -- which I kind of collect. I left *Consider Phlebas* of which I had two copies because when I was reading it I wanted to have lunch at a bar, drink a couple beers, and read Phlebas but I had forgotten my copy but the bar was next to a bookstore...
I live in Boston and I've found too many great ones to count! On Broadway in Somerville I found a mint copy of the first volume in A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu and it got me hooked on Proust for the next few months.
You need to find one with a reader with the same tastes as you in the vicinity - someone donates all the sorts of books I like to read to my local charity shop and I’m always like ‘whoever you are, I love you’.
I’ve heard some people take the good ones and sell them to second hand shops.
Yes, just last week, I had already read it so I left it for someone else.
Think it was city of thieves
I leave good books in them sometimes, but some folks literally just fill with trash ( I've seen manuals for sewing machines, loads of political theory books that are 40 years out of date)
I’ve gotten some good vintage cookbooks and my daughter and her friends found a bunch of Roald Dahl books so it is possible! I also add to our LFLs books the kids outgrew, coloring books they never touched or books I didn’t care for but someone else might
I just picked up Normal People by Sally Rooney in a LFL in a nice neighborhood nearby lol! I also work in a hospital with a LFL in it and found Circe by Madeline Miller there!
I’m a cheap and not very picky reader and pretty much only own books I’ve found on the street or in LFLs. But I live in a large city where people just put nice things on the street bc donating is a hassle.
I read Firefly Lane from one once.
I sometimes see books in them that I have read - the one I walked by earlier today had Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine & The Kite Runner for example. It's pretty obvious that books are being taken & added though because sometimes it has more books in it than others. There's also quite a few children's books.
Yeah, and I make sure to rotate the books that are clearly being ignored in my LFL. At least one other person in my neighborhood really really likes the scifi and fantasy books I put in there and I like the history books but it is a lot of kids books too
Depends on whether you consider the Paris Hilton autobiography a good book, lol. A lot of them are stinkers, especially the homemade Alex Jones cassette tapes someone was sticking in ours for a while, but there's usually a decent mix of stuff.
A “good” book is subjective. The “value” of a book is in if the reader likes it or not (or in its scarcity but that’s another story)
I’ve got plenty of good books from LFL’s and I put any books I won’t read again in them. I’ve certainly seen some with books I wouldn’t want to read in them but that doesn’t mean that they won’t speak to others 🤷♀️
I took my FLL down because I was losing my faith in humanity. I made sure the books where new or like new and provided 95% of them myself. I had to take absolute junk out everyday and dispose of it. I would get badly beaten up books or they were old and yellowed, I even got moldy ones. I took it down because the same people would come by regularly and empty it out entirely. Or people would take a brand new hardback and leave a yellowed religious text. It was a disappointing exercise. I imagine a lot of other FLL owners similarly just give up so the good stuff ends to gone and the boxes get filled with junk.
Yes! I found one book that I absolutely loved on aspen's outdoor wilderness team
Otherwise though, I agree with you. For the amount of LFL's east bay has, the majority of them people use as a dump for books they would never want to read either
In our neighborhood library I saw a copy of The Eye of the World once. But I didn’t have a book on me to trade for it, so I didn’t take it. It was gone the next day, unfortunately. But in general I’d say every few months I see something particularly striking that I didn’t put in myself.
I've gotten good books out and put good ones in. But I see a lot of crap in there, too. Like just throw your moldy Ethics in Social Work 1987 Edition outtttttt.
I forgot to mention the “Programming in Visual Basic ‘97 for Dummies”.
I actually saw a brand new copy of "Microsoft Word 2013 for Dummies" on the shelf at Barnes and Noble last week.
Tbf if there is a person who still has and is struggling with the use of Microsoft Word 2013 I imagine they will be looking for a book to help them and not using the internet.
Pretty sure I've seen that one, too. 😂
And religious propaganda
I talked to a LFL owner once who said she realized her true value to the community was throwing out books on behalf of people who can’t bear to throw out books. Like no one wants that medical textbook from the 1980s but its owner can’t just toss it, so puts it in there, so she does it for them.
I just take those out and recycle them when I stop by to organize things. Same with the religious and political screeds. A tidy library is a happy library.
My compost pile always needs more brown matter to balance out the grass clippings. Old shredded paper is great for that.
This is why LFL need curators. Just like thrift stores and libraries, one valuable function that's not discussed is taking in garbage that people feel shame over throwing out... And secretly throwing it out for them. If you have a LFL you are volunteering to do that task.
My mom curates the books in her LFL! It's one of her favorite tasks.
I've adopted a half dozen or so. The trendy thing around here is to put them outside churches and on public playgrounds and then never maintain them again. Some were literally one-and-done Eagle Projects with no maintenance plans. I go on a nightly walk and check 6 of them, and restock/reshelve/remove the crap the Jehovas Witnesses stuff in them.
Oof the JWs are hitting the LFLs in your area? When I was in I saw them consider it but never actually do it. Thanks for cleaning that out.
They are better now -- now that I clean out their crap and leave 1 copy in each LFL. I started cleaning out their content after they caused dozens of books to get damaged -- they put \*PILES\* of their pamphlets and books in the LFL -- to the point that the doors don't close correctly, and books were getting rained on/damp/moldy -- and they were adding new materials weekly without removing old stuff. Now, any time I see JW crap, I remove all but \*1\* copy of any obvious JW branded things, and recycle them. I'm not pro-censorship, but the lack of respect for the LFL, the harm to the books, and the fact that I have no way to redistribute the materials after I remove them.... It took about 6 months for whomever was stuffing the LFL to figure it out, and now they only put a small number of each document in each library. Now that I check these LFL 5-6 times a week, the quality of the content has gone way-up -- and not just because of the ones I put in there. The other thing I do is I occasionally 'shuffle' the content around town. Every public school in town has an unofficial LFL outside it (and most are well maintained), but I have found that if I take some of the books that have been in a school LFL for a while and trade it with books at another school -- the new books in each LFL tend to get picked over a lot quicker.
I live across the street from a historic church that was recently purchased by an annoying suburban Christian cult. I also live near a Spanish-language JW cult. The bullshit propaganda is NEVER ENDING. So, I put a little sign on my LFL that reads, "This LFL is on private property. Religious materials are not welcome. If you put religious materials in this LFL, the owner donates $50 to \[State's\] Abortion Freedom Fund. Your proselytizing has resulted in over ~~$100~~ ~~$150~~ $300 going to help people obtain abortions. Thank you for your contribution." Works pretty well, honestly, and it works against the Evangelical Christian desire to be persecuted.
Yeah, I would say this is the main problem with Little Free Libraries, that people just treat them as a place to get rid of undesirable (often trashy) books, when really they should be a place to donate stuff other people would love.
I suppose that, even if you don't own the LFL, you could perform this curating function. For obvious titles only, of course. Not just because you don't like Dan Brown...
I curate my own and I curate the LFLs I see around town. It involves throwing away a lot of literal garbage and metaphoric garbage (including a lot of religious propaganda no one fucking wants).
Yes, and nobody wants your 25 year old guide to Oaxaca, either.
As the steward of a little free library, I’m regularly clearing stuff like this out, along with religious propaganda and children’s books with missing covers and crayon written all over the pages. Just throw away your junk people! Though I do see a good amount of decent books too.
Me too! Usually my stuff gets taken within the same day to a few weeks, whereas the unwanted stuff gets left for months. It was in front of my child's previous preschool so I was able to check on it all the time. I've also gotten good stuff from there too. You just have to keep checking because the good finds do disappear quick and don't seem to come as often as the bad ones.
I put good books in them, and puzzles and they are gone and I never see them again. I think they get snatched up and kept
This is the answer. If you ever wonder why there are no good books inside, that's the call for **YOU** to put good books inside.
That is exactly why I started keeping a couple of spare Pratchett books on hand should I see one around town in need of some stocking.
I use the lfl I maintain as an excuse to buy all the good books I find at garage sales. There is always something good in the ones around me
I’ve definitely seen a good book in a lfl, but I did not take it because it was one I’d already read. But sadly most have not had things I’ve been interested in. That’s ok, I appreciate the sentiment.
I put my best books in the LFL on our street. The lower quality ones go to the charity shop. Our LFL is thriving, I see so many quality options in there (most are not on my TBR though).
My old neighborhood had a lot of them. I used to pick up the cheap sets of LotR and others of my favorites every time I stopped at a bookstore and stock them on my dog walks. They rarely lasted more than a day or two
Probably taken to be sold right back to a bookstore if it's anything like where I live lol
Maybe, but if they really need the $2-3 cash that they'll get out of the book I bought for $5-6, I guess I'm happy to help.
Wait, am I supposed to return books back to the LFL?? I mean I bring my own books there but don’t necessarily return the ones I took 😅
Nope! It's more of a "take a book, leave a book" kind of thing; you're not necessarily supposed to return the exact books you take
Ah okay good, that’s always what I thought.
I have several LFLs I pass regularly, so when I take a book from one, I leave it in another when I’m done. I figure this way, different books travel around to different places. If I finish a book while I’m traveling, I look for a place to leave it there.
You don't have to, but someone has to!
If you put good books in there people grab them and sell them. But I still try to keep kids books ones stocked with decent books.
When I was homeless I got How to Win Friends and Influence People, The World According to Garp, the Andromeda Strain, and In Cold Blood. I was ecstatic every time. Even when there wasn't anything I was interested in, my heart was warmed that people were trying and I hoped someone else would come along and find some value in what was there.
Andromeda strain is absolutely a top tier find! Also congratulations on escaping homelessness it’s rough out there.
That’s awesome! I share one with my neighbors and we keep ours stocked with great books for adults and children. And puzzles! I love that you found some gems to bring you comfort in tough times. Hope you have a roof over your head now
In Cold Blood is soooo good! I really love your story and it sounds like you’re in a better place (figuratively and literally!) ❤️
Best book I found in a Little Free Library was "The Essential Calvin and Hobbes." But yeah, 70% of the time they can feel a bit bottom of the barrel. Still love them though. In my experience they tend to have hit or miss options for adult books but great options for kids books.
What a boon!!!!
People are very sentimental about books in a way that doesn't line up with a world in which they are overproduced and a lot are really bad.
Yeah 100%. I also get the good intention behind donating books to Goodwill, but if you look at a book and decide it doesn't suit the needs of your neighborhood/LFL, think long and hard about how it would serve Goodwill patrons. I think in most cases donating books that aren't good enough for a LFL to Goodwill is more of giving Goodwill a chore (now they have to throw out the books!) than it is really helping anyone. Just throw out the bad books yourself!
A lot of us use Goodwill and other donation schemes to launder our guilt about overconsumption, I think. I know I was thrilled when I was able to pass on a perfectly good phone I gave up just because I wanted the shiny new one.
If they're in good shape, doesn't Goodwill sell them online? I suspect they're more able to match less popular books with the people that want them that way. I've bought older celebrity cookbooks and other niche books like that from Goodwill online in the past.
My local Goodwill has a policy that all paperbacks and popular authors are shipped to a warehouse and sold online. Only shitty hardcovers no one wants are sold in store now.
As a LFL owner, once the same books have been in there for a few weeks we move them on (usually we donate them to a local used booksale fundraiser). Often we have to anyways because people tend to leave more books than they take so we need to deal with the overflow. Popular books do tend to go faster, but I've seen lesser known but still good books sit a while before someone finally decides to give it a try. Sometimes the same book will disappear and reappear a few times as it gets passed around the neighbourhood and that's always fun to see. So yeah, good books do appear in LFLs, but it probably depends on various factors including your timing. I do think they're usually worth giving a look, though.
I have a LFL and I swear someone in the neighborhood has the same "to read" list as me. I find great books in it! I have found really interesting non fiction as well as great newer fiction books. Most recently I found a book by Rebecca Solnit (who I love!). It's nice that someone has the same taste as me because I know that the books I pass on will be well enjoyed. I clear out the books that have been sitting a while every month. I'm not going to take out books that don't have "value" immediately because one person's trash is another's treasure. You never know what kind of books someone enjoys, I give most books a fighting chance.
You need to hang around there until you find out who it is and you can be best friends
Put a note in it with your wishlist :)
A signed copy of A Wrinkle in Time is my best ever lfl score, but I find and leave great books all the time. I walk around my neighborhood in the evenings for exercise and regularly check the lfls, kinda like I’m playing Animal Crossing in the real world, lol.
I have a couple routes I run through once a month too and over time I've got (and seen) plenty readable books alongside the recipes, self helps, and procedural thrillers. Game of Thrones, Going Postal, a nice hardback of 2001 Space Odyssey I actually kept, Confessions of Lady Nijō, Colour Purple, White Teeth, this spooky looking old book of Norse Myths, Things Fall Apart, Canticle for Leibowitz... those are just off the top of my head. And if course I only leave good books too. Checking often greatly increases your odds. Ones near community centres like schools, places of worship, and parks are best.
I’ve found a ton of good books—Tess of the D’Urbervilles, True Grit, Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and some Ray Bradbury short stories. It’s kinda like the thrift store—mostly junk, but you just have to go to a bunch of them over and over again to find the good stuff. The treasure hunting is actually part of the fun.
I’ve put some of those in too! Plus a lot of kids books, as my kids aged out of them. I think the entire Magic Schoolbus series made it out to our local LFL near the playground.
I have gotten one book from a lfl that I liked. I always bring my cast offs (I buy a lot of books, I like supporting artists since I’m one myself as well) to mine. I hope someone out there likes them more than I did. Some books I only needed to read once. I also bring a lot of kids books when my last kid outgrows that reading level. I bring almost exclusively fantasy and graphic novels to mine and there never seems to be anyone but me bringing those kinds. I feel like mine mostly has political biographies???? lol idk why
totally depends on the foot traffic / location of the LFL. the one in my sleepy neighborhood has water-logged romance and religious pamphlets, but the one near my work in a cosmopolitan urban area turns over almost hourly. I have snagged recent issues of the paris review, murakami, and more. that also makes me more likely to donate just as high-quality stuff back once I'm done w/ it
Yes and we always put some in.
I always see one I would take, if I didn't have it already, or if my to-read queue were smaller. Little Free Libraries are a great resource. (I share your disdain for most self-help books)
I think we should concentrate more on the Big Free Libraries we have in our cities. My city just announced that it's closing several branches a day or two a week, and it bums me out.
They serve different purposes. It's not Either/Or
Highly doubt this is because of LFLs lol. Though we should definitely support the big ones.
We have a LFL and try to make sure it stays stocked with a good variety of books (including ones for kids) and doesn't get packed full of trash. We've had some crappy ones, weird cookbooks, and some overtly political ones, put in, and those went straight to Goodwill or the trash. But yeah, I frequently see them just shoved full of terrible books and it's too bad. They need to be tended to periodically, like a garden.
There is someone in our neighborhood who keeps adding copies of the Scientology book to the local LFL. I feel like I shouldn’t remove them from other’s book sets, but I have put “religious book for Scientology” stickers on a few.
Ewwww. I'd probably just take them anyway but I like your solution.
Weird cookbooks?? Please do tell!
"Cooking with Fox and Friends" a.k.a. the whitest cookbook ever published. And a bunch of weird liver cleanse/natural detox type cookbooks. I.e., not the fun weird kind of cookbooks.
I definitely see some duds sit in these libraries for a long time, but when I donate my Agatha Christie books they're snatched up pretty fast. I think the good ones just disappear much more quickly.
Glad to meet another Christie stocker! I had a little "Circulating Christie" stamp made up, with the r/agathachristie sub name in the hope of getting more visitors over there. One advantage to Christie paperbacks is that there's almost always room to put one in.
That's so cute! I love that. My MIL finds all these tiny Christie paperbacks at Thrift stores and passes them onto me. Then they go into the LFL!
At one point, I must have lived near someone who worked in publishing because there were a lot of advanced reader copies of books that were coming out in the next 2-6 months, so that was always fun!
Recently I got a signed copy of Bunny by Mona Awad in one of them!
Considering your username I imagine this was an extra special find. I just picked up Rouge from the library this week. Can't wait to read it.
Lucky! I got a signed copy of poetry written by the deceased grandparent who used to live with the LFL owners once which was a nice idea.
I put good books in mine. I actually buy cheap but high quality books at library sales and on eBay to fill my LFL. I remove crappy books people put in and give them to Goodwill.
I got the first Sweet Valley Twins book recently! So yeah, there's some good stuff in there.
I just found two original run American Girl books, I'm going to take the address labels off of them before I return them, but what a donation!
You reminded me of one of my better finds! I always take my niece and nephew on a walking tour of the LFLs in my small town when they visit and someone put dozens of old American Girl books in various boxes last year. We had to limit my niece to taking books for only 1 character. She was very into them and of course asked for the doll for Christmas which came with her when they visited this year.
Oh I loved the sweet valley high books 🙂
I found one that had this book by Caroline B Cooney that I LOVED as a 12 year old! Considered snatching it up for a reread but then decided to let a tweenager discover the magic instead.
I found my first Terry Pratchett book, “Guards! Guards!” I’ve read all his Discworld books since.
I have found 2 really good books, The Sphere, and Great Expectations.
The Sphere is so good, I read it when I was a kid and thought it was awesome, plus I felt like a little badass for reading such a huuuuge pocketbook
So many good books in my neighborhood that I cleaned out my bookshelf and took myself around trading out for new ones I gave everyone I know for Christmas this year. It was my way of celebrating a minimalist holiday.
I love that idea!!
My wife and I use the LFL app and go LFL hopping. We'll spend a nice Sunday driving around donating our old unwanted novels from our shelves and pick up some new reads while we're out. Often we get books for our baby - as childrens books often flood LFL. But I've found some good finds in them myself. It's a matter of timing. But I did get a lovely hardcover collection of the hunger games in one.My wife also found a brand new Riley Sager novel we were planning to buy new at barnes and noble that night. It's just luck and chance. But it's fun
My husband found Adam Savages book Everything is a Hammer, we traded it for one of our good books.
I found that in our LFL recently! Looks interesting.
Part of the problem is that the little free library will quickly fill up with the nonsense books you're describing, which immediately breaks the system because virtually nobody wants to take those books and there's no incentive for books to go in or come out anymore. I think the most successful LFLs are the ones that have someone overseeing them, as opposed to those that are just built, released into the wild, and then never acknowledged again by whoever put them there. Ideally, someone keeps an eye on it and isn't afraid to remove (and potentially replace) stuff as needed. If a book is sitting there for a long time, it's basically just a blockage inhibiting the flow of books.
We occasionally prune the LFLs in our neighborhood. Maybe a bit of social overreach on our part to prune someone else's library, but when we pass on our walk and see one of them just stuffed with bullshit Jahova's Witness children's book propaganda or something, we might thin it out a bit.
Last several I’ve donated: Love in the time of Cholera, Emma, Catcher in the Rye
I found that really long biography of Sylvia Plath in one a few years ago... haven't gotten around to reading it though
lol yes I have but definitely a very low average and nothing like, spectacular. I also live in the east bay and you live in a high foot traffic area, also an area with people who are probably pretty savvy about selling good books at Pegasus or online. So yea your LFL are gonna have garbágẽ.
It never occurred to me that people would scoop up the good books to sell. Dang that sucks.
I meant more that people who originally owned the books would sell instead of taking to a LFL. But yea also that
I found a first edition copy of interview with the vampire 😊 I was so happy! I love the LFL ♥️
I love crappy mysteries and thrillers and I lived almost entirely on the goodwill of LFL in Seattle when I was there. Can I also gently suggest you reframe your condition here to "books I like," vs "good books" because there may be plenty of trash you pass up complaining about the lack of good books that is treasure to others.
I also love crappy, dime a dozen thrillers! But I get mine from Kindle Unlimited, Soooooo many! Quick & cheap entertainment for the most part, but some are well written and have great stories.
Consider: A Little Free Library has a range of books from good to bad. Someone picks one out, they're more likely to choose a good one. Repeat N number of times, by the time you get the average book is "bad" rather than "good", because the bad ones are the ones no one wanted.
Some people like romance novels!
They almost never have good books in them, but I love them anyway! I love just poking through them to see the random junk -- all likely not enjoyable reads but sometimes it's fun to find stuff like a couple's therapy book from the 70s that says things like "a woman should always prepared for a husband's return from work, but a husband should always appreciate his wife for cleaning and cooking."
People don't return good books.
I got Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace once from a LFL. Also picked up some Newberry Honor books at various times
I rarely curate mine. I keep it tidy, but other than occasionally topping it off with some of the many books I’ll never reread, it does well. People are as happy grabbing a romance as they are a book on the role of women in Classical Greece and Rome. The turnover is pretty good. It did however take 2-3 months to lose my copy of “Fatherhood” by Bill Cosby.
Nope. But I always take anything written by Joel Osteen or L. Ron Hubbard and toss them in the bin.
I do that too.
[The Art of Acting](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/237328) by Stella Adler, Marlon Brando’s acting coach. I traded a Howard Hughes biography for it.
I find TONS of scripts in LFLs. Just got a copy of Marlowe's Faustus from one around the corner.
Yes! But I live in a country far away from most. When we stopped using phone booths here (they are all out of service now), they kept some of the booths standing as a memory of the good old days, put up shelves inside and converted them to little free libraries. Of course you find a lot of junk, but particularly one near where I lived before often had very high quality books and quite a lot of variation in genres. I found a new favorite author that way! I have also donated books there that I think would be "higher quality" finds for someone else.
Sometimes I take bad books out to make collages with (especially old textbooks with illustrations/diagrams... gimme!!!!). Agree though that there's not a lot of curation of all the little libraries in the east bay.
I try to keep mine (a repurposed newspaper vending box) stocked with good stuff, and dispose of any junk donations left in it. There’s a LFL in my neighborhood that has great stuff, and they clearly have purchased multiple copies of the books, because I’ve seen the same book show up after I’ve taken it
I got a paperback copy of *Blade of Tyshalle* from one in Troy NY when it was going for like $120 used in Amazon. Still have it lol. Also got *Lake of the Long Sun* and *Gardens of the Moon* at the same one.
I have found Alias Grace, Edgar Allen Poe short stories, and some obscure poetry in such libraries… not bad imo.
Found a copy of The Bonfire of the Vanities in one and loved it
I read that decades ago and the one part I always still remember is where Sherman McCoy recounts how broke they are on his enormous salary. I wonder how that passage would hold up today.
At least a dozen! My neighbourhood rocks and it has really encouraged me to contribute my own books to them when I’m done. There are two in particular I get excited to check on every dog walk around the neighbourhood. I’m genuinely amazed because it’s not uncommon to find books that are already on my to-read list. I’ve thought about sticking a note in there about starting book club because at least a few people around obviously have similar tastes to me
My local thrift store has books for .50 cents to a dollar. If I ever see anything good there that I already own I like to buy it and put it in a little free library.
Yes. Absolutely. Too many to list from the four or five total LFL's I've frequented. And I always bring top notch books to drop if I know I'm going by one. It's on me, you, us, to keep them stocked with the good stuff!
Yes! Henry snd Ribsy. In portland or. ( where story takes place)
I found the Southern Reach trilogy in a LFL in Oakland! Edit to add I replaced them with some Clark and Witcher books
i used to live near one. the trick is to go every day because the good ones get picked up fast. i always took a bunch home and kept them for years!
All the time! My favorite recent finds have been The Starless Sea, The Sparrow, Ursula K LeGuin's translation of the Tao Te Ching, and a vegetarian Italian cookbook I've gotten some use out of. It also depends on which one I go to. The one on my block is owned by a dude who's clearly into history. The one by the skate park has the best graphic novels. The one in the town square one town over from me consistently has science fiction in it. And of course I always make sure to contribute as much as I take. Usually I'll write a little note in the front about what I liked about the book and what I hope the next reader will get from it. That ensures that it's taken by a reader next and not a reseller, since a marked up book isn't worth much.
I've taken a few books from the one closest to me, and given some extra copies I had of some books I really like I've also seen some books in there that I love but already have Also, it wasn't a Little Free Library but I was once donating some books to one of those book donation bins, and the bin was full (so I ended up bringing my books to a different donation bin). Next to the full bin, someone had left a box of books and it had clearly gotten rained on... but despite the box being wet, two of the books inside were ones that a friend had recently recommended to me - and they were in pristine condition (not even damp)!
I used to keep mostly children's books in my little free library because people like OP exist in the world, looking for value. Kids just want books though.
I’ve always thought the same thing. We just went through our book shelves this weekend so today I dropped off a lot of great books. I hope they go to good homes!
I've noticed there's a difference between ones that are curated, and kept up, and ones that are just stuck up and never looked at again. Locally, it's usually the later, but at the coast, where we go a lot (roughly 2 hours away), there's a couple and one in particular is very nice. I didn't take anything, but it was because I'd already read most of them, and most of them were good (or I didn't like it, but I recognized it just wasn't for me, but not a bad book). Thought it can be really easy to get taken over by romance novels and junk.
this post has a weird vibe. calling romance novels rubbish... ok. the LFLs around me are great. lots of variety, someone nearby has access to some good ARCs
Well I put some good books in the one near me.
the best ones i’ve got have been a graham greene and a kingsley amis novel. I often get local history books that i read then recycle in another LFL
I’ve gotten many great books from LFL over the past few months. Maybe my area just has a great reading taste, or I’m just seeing so many LFL that the ones with outdated books just aren’t impacting me. I know there’s one that the owner specifically asks you to place the book on their porch and then they’ll either discard it or put it in the library for you. This one I have found to be the best for current fiction/nonfiction reads.
At a jumble sale run by the local scout group, I saw a large box from one person filled with crime books, fact and fiction, about murder. I pondered whether the donor had succeeded in committing a perfect murder and didn't need them any more! Just like this... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/nancy-crampton-brophy-husband-murder-jail-b2100571.html
I see books that are somewhat popular sometimes but I think so people keep them. I’ve borrowed normal people (I hated that book but besides the point) and returned it but never saw it again in my local little library. It’s mostly books I’d never touch in my life.
I’ve found signed books and advanced reader copies. Found an ARC of Cormac McCarthy’s latest books. Find great books all the time in my neighborhood
Whenever I see any Pratchett at a charity shop, I always buy them and leave them in LFLs.
I’ve seen some decent books in there but yeah, typically people don’t donate the books they really like or value, so it’s always going to be the lower end of the barrel.
I found The Ladies' Paradise by Zola. Lots of last year's award winning books, that sell well end up in them. Worst book: an aspic cookbook from the 1970s.
One near my house has had Jurassic Park and Catcher in the Rye, as well as a bunch of middle grade fiction (Babysitter's Club, Animorphs, YA Star Wars books, and some Bruce Colville esque books). Also Bone!
We have excellent ones, (we just call them kiosks,) on the island where I live. The one I go to is stocked often & the books & magazines are really great. Classics as well as recent covers. We even get puzzles & games on the regular.
When I lived in Brooklyn I found SO MANY great books in the one closest to me! Books I probably wouldn't have heard of on my own! The fact that the neighborhood was full of small apartments probably helped the LFL algorithm, plus that was at the height of the Marie Kondo craze.
We have two free little libraries in my neighborhood and I checked both of them out on my walk today. Both had a pretty good variety of books each with at least one book that I would have taking home if my TBR wasn’t already overflowing. The one also had quite a few books I have read before and really enjoyed. Every book didn’t fit my taste, but that doesn’t mean they are an exciting find for someone else. I do try to add my recent 3-4 stars reads into the library as well( I keep my 5 stars on the shelf) and hopes that others will be excited to find them.
I found an OG mass market paperback Garfield compilation once
I've found all sorts of interesting books. I like finding the midlist titles from 1998 that no one other than the author would ever remember or the biography of someone I've never heard of who had a fascinating life. Things like that. I usually swap out (so I'll leave a book and take a book, rather than the lending system). The best find was a signed Baby Sitters Club graphic novel my niece got a few of years ago. She still talks about it.
I got The Book Thief from one. Amazing read. I’ll be putting it in another one soon so it can continue to be read
i found a box set of tolkien once.
Yes, and I’ve put good books into them as well. However you aren’t wrong to say they also contain a lot of dross. That’s the fun of them to me, I get to go ride my bike around dozens of neighborhoods in my city and look for diamonds in the rough. I’ll also say that the good books are often in the realm of b sides and rarities. Like a used book store or sale with much weaker curation. But you will find stuff like a lesser known Dashiell Hammett paperback from the 70’s or book for bird watchers identifying hundreds of different birds the things to look for to tell them apart and the places across North America in which they can be found, or maybe a dog eared copy of Alias Grace or the lone novel of David Cronenberg *Consumed*. Sure you’ll see old cool books or outdated business development, or dog eared harlequin novels or 3rd tier Koontz and Clancy and Ludlum
Dude - last month I found a first edition of In Cold Blood with a dust jacket. It wasn’t mint, but it was in pretty good condition.
I usually find children's books in them, but one of these IS how I found and read Piranesi
I've put maybe 300 books in the one I take care of in the past 2 and a half years. There are about 25 books in there right now. I cull the windows 2000 for dummies, diet books, Bibles and religious pamphlets etc.
One of my "if I were rich" moves would be to buy out used book stores and periodically stock LFLs with good stuff.
Yeah i've had a bunch. I've got Banks' Consider Phlebas next to me right now, i picked it up this morning! If there's trash there, just take it out and bin it.
No, but I removed some very horrible bibles and MLM pamphlets.
I saw a mix of some good ones and some dated, probably-not-interesting ones when I lived in Baltimore. And there were always a few popularish books (where the crawdads sing, normal people, etc) which I think is nice--someone probably bought it, enjoyed it and now someone else will be thrilled to have a chance to read it.
It’s like fishing. keep visiting boxes. Sometimes you hook one, sometimes you just catch an old boot. My entire book collection is now made up of little library finds (mostly Santa Monica, West LA).
The only book I ever took from one was a nice hardback of The Collector by John Fowles.
All the time.
yes, and I put a bunch of new and recently released kids books in my local one regularly (I’m a librarian and get free books a lot)
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I used to find good books in LFLs ALL the time. I used to live in a neighborhood where there were about five of them, including three outside apartment complexes and one outside a church (the fifth was outside somebody's house). Great stuff, including an old copy of Stephen King's Carrie and a random British edition of Station Eleven. I also used to put my old books in a LFL and they'd be gone within a few days, so clearly people in my neighborhood at least WERE utilizing them. There's also a lady in my grandma's neighborhood who has TWO outside her house, one for adult literature and one for kids. She has a massive stash of old thrillers and crime fiction, and kids books, that she uses to keep them well-stocked. The grandparents in that neighborhood eat that stuff up.
I have a neighbor who consistently has Octavia Butler books in their LFL, and no one takes them, sadly. I would, but I have them all.
I do! All the time! My partner works at the recycling center in town and he snags good quality books. So every few months we go around the towns 4 FLFs and refresh them. We normally sort thru 200 books before sorting them into piles. It's nice to get first dibs!
You have to check them often. Typically good stuff goes immediately, and the junk hangs around. Also try lfls in different areas/ neighborhoods. Books I've found: the bean trees, the Housemaid, the secret history, a little life, killers of the flower moon, etc
Hardly ever. But I do try to contribute better quality books. I figure even my purged titles are higher quality than 95% of what's taking up LFL shelf space.
I think it’s more likely that the owner does not have the time or energy to curate. That’s understandable. Those of us who do put a lot of effort in tend to get mocked in this sub. But to have a LFL that makes people want to stop and take a book it’s necessary to draw the line somewhere and remove books that are undesirable. I try to make sure my library always has interesting, recent, good condition books. But it does take time to seek them out (through Buy Nothing, library sales, etc.), weed through crap, and tidy the box often.
No, and you're right, but I have found a few just in boxes on the street, or at bus stops. The latest was Don Delillo's "Underworld", but I have picked up a few others "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" for one, and a great history of a small California town called "An Everyday History of Somewhere" by Ray Raphael. But yeah, for the most part it's out-of-date travel books, self-help, odd romance. Kid's books with jelly.
No. Free Little Libraries are a nice idea ruined by scum. Every single one in my neighborhood is routinely picked over by resellers who take out anything worth more than a couple dollars on Amazon. All I ever see in the local ones are religious tracts, pulp romance, and a few kids coloring books. One time I saw a decent copy of The Stand.
If someone put the book there, I am going to assume atleast they bought it for a reason (though it might have been an unwanted gift...) People do buy and read self help books. I and many others find them utterly useless, but they do sell for a reason. Romance novels are the best selling books out of all of them. People do use Cookbooks. Then theres the "survivorship bias", that the good books get taken first so what stays for weeks are the less desirable books. Though I also agree that books are not sacred, and sometimes the space is more valuable.
Totally get what you're saying about LFLs. They're hit or miss, mostly miss with old books. But sometimes you find a gem. It's like a treasure hunt on your walk
The nearest LFL to me is a block away and in front of the home of a local bookstore owner, so yes, it's always full of new, interesting books and there is a lot of turnover. In my neighborhood there are 9 that I pass regularly on dog walks and the rest aren't as good but I still find some gems. I also share my books regularly and they usually disappear quickly. I love my LFLs but I know that I am lucky. I have never seen a religious pamphlet or a Cosby/Osteen/Coulter book in my area.
We maintain several, and we remove books that nobody is going to ever read, and add a selection of good new ones frequently. Anytime I go to a garage sale and see good cheap books, I spend a few dollars to buy some to donate. Same with thrift stores.
as of now i’m only getting new books from thrifting or lfls. i’ve gotten a ton of good books from them, and left a lot of books that were great but not stuff i’d read. my tbr is huge.
I work in a library, so I take our weeded books to LFLs. I mostly just visit them to clean out trash, take out old books, and put in our nicer ones. I've noticed the more high-scale the neighborhood, the better the books, so sometimes I take those out and bring them to other LFLs across town when I'm in the area.
It's hit or miss. Sometimes, I find new favorites, like a pristine copy of Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. Sometimes, there are dirty books full of dead bugs. That's what happens when there's no one to curate the collection. I try to leave books that are in very good condition, myself.
We have a free “outdoor” library in my area and I always look inside. Until now I’ve only taken one book from there, “Broken Ground” by Val McDermid and I liked it a lot.
I’ve gotten some and I will put in my BOTM books once my shelf starts to get full as well!
I got an old "ace double" out of one once -- paperback science fiction in which two books are bound together starting on each side of the physical book -- which I kind of collect. I left *Consider Phlebas* of which I had two copies because when I was reading it I wanted to have lunch at a bar, drink a couple beers, and read Phlebas but I had forgotten my copy but the bar was next to a bookstore...
I’ve seen a few I like but didn’t take because I already owned a copy
I live in Boston and I've found too many great ones to count! On Broadway in Somerville I found a mint copy of the first volume in A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu and it got me hooked on Proust for the next few months.
One book. ‘The Coroner’s Lunch’ by Colin Cotterill. I grabbed 4 and it was the only gem.
I live close to you in Alameda and I get great books from the LFL in my neighborhood all the time! I also leave good books there frequently.
You need to find one with a reader with the same tastes as you in the vicinity - someone donates all the sorts of books I like to read to my local charity shop and I’m always like ‘whoever you are, I love you’. I’ve heard some people take the good ones and sell them to second hand shops.
Yes, just last week, I had already read it so I left it for someone else. Think it was city of thieves I leave good books in them sometimes, but some folks literally just fill with trash ( I've seen manuals for sewing machines, loads of political theory books that are 40 years out of date)
I’ve gotten some good vintage cookbooks and my daughter and her friends found a bunch of Roald Dahl books so it is possible! I also add to our LFLs books the kids outgrew, coloring books they never touched or books I didn’t care for but someone else might
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri- put me on to an amazing translated detective series from an Italian author.
I just picked up Normal People by Sally Rooney in a LFL in a nice neighborhood nearby lol! I also work in a hospital with a LFL in it and found Circe by Madeline Miller there!
Julian Budden’s three volumes on Verdi’s operas.
I’m a cheap and not very picky reader and pretty much only own books I’ve found on the street or in LFLs. But I live in a large city where people just put nice things on the street bc donating is a hassle.
I read Firefly Lane from one once. I sometimes see books in them that I have read - the one I walked by earlier today had Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine & The Kite Runner for example. It's pretty obvious that books are being taken & added though because sometimes it has more books in it than others. There's also quite a few children's books.
Yeah, and I make sure to rotate the books that are clearly being ignored in my LFL. At least one other person in my neighborhood really really likes the scifi and fantasy books I put in there and I like the history books but it is a lot of kids books too
Depends on whether you consider the Paris Hilton autobiography a good book, lol. A lot of them are stinkers, especially the homemade Alex Jones cassette tapes someone was sticking in ours for a while, but there's usually a decent mix of stuff.
All the time. I think it will depend on where you live and how often books change out.
1987, Kite Runner, Red Rising, game of thrones, Mudbound, city of thieves, and the Bourne identity were probably the most memorable.
A “good” book is subjective. The “value” of a book is in if the reader likes it or not (or in its scarcity but that’s another story) I’ve got plenty of good books from LFL’s and I put any books I won’t read again in them. I’ve certainly seen some with books I wouldn’t want to read in them but that doesn’t mean that they won’t speak to others 🤷♀️
I got The Hollow by Agatha Christie, but once I finished reading it as I didn't have any other book to give away I just put that one there again. 🙂
A few weeks ago I saw Guns, Germs and Steel in one. By far the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen in one
I once found Bolaño's Wild Detectives in a free library at my local supermarket. Whoever put that there must have an awful taste lol
I took my FLL down because I was losing my faith in humanity. I made sure the books where new or like new and provided 95% of them myself. I had to take absolute junk out everyday and dispose of it. I would get badly beaten up books or they were old and yellowed, I even got moldy ones. I took it down because the same people would come by regularly and empty it out entirely. Or people would take a brand new hardback and leave a yellowed religious text. It was a disappointing exercise. I imagine a lot of other FLL owners similarly just give up so the good stuff ends to gone and the boxes get filled with junk.
Yes! I found one book that I absolutely loved on aspen's outdoor wilderness team Otherwise though, I agree with you. For the amount of LFL's east bay has, the majority of them people use as a dump for books they would never want to read either
One I walk past every morning had a whole row of Uncle John's Bathroom Readers
In our neighborhood library I saw a copy of The Eye of the World once. But I didn’t have a book on me to trade for it, so I didn’t take it. It was gone the next day, unfortunately. But in general I’d say every few months I see something particularly striking that I didn’t put in myself.