Due Date

  I dropped by the box this morning and discovered seventeen new books.  Count 'em seventeen kids books.  The benefit of having a Teacher/Mom in the neighborhood is now readily apparent.  Check out this panorama of titles, my personal favorite is My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  This book inspired my wilderness adventures and although I didn't live in a tree this book was a spark in my boyhood reading.

Books from the Mayberry Family

  These books are now safely ensconced in the box and when I was stamping them I noticed an artifact of pre-digital libraries.  Anyone remember these little sleeves and hand inked due by dates?  Ah it takes one back to mimeographs, tasty glue pots, Ticonderoga pencils, Flannel Graphs, Sullivan Readers and a host of forgotten high technology teaching tools.  Fortunately the paper and ink books have survived the digital transformation.  So one can blog in the binary world and read for pleasure in the analog world.  Thanks once again to great neighbors.

8/30, ~6:30pm-Come Decorate the Box!

We're Official

  Yesterday we received our official registration from the Little Free Library organization.  We are LFL # 8481.  We also just passed 100 books (100 Adult, 17 kids) either in the box or passed on to borrowers.  The packet from LFL had some informational brochures and some book plates.  Drop by the box and fill out a recommendation for a book you've enjoyed.  This is your chance to become a free lance book reviewer!

Little Free Library # 8481

  We're still on for this Friday @ 6:30ish to decorate the box & get a group picture.  Does anyone have a hot glue gun?  How about some creative decorating ideas?  Once we have a couple photos I'll add us to the library map which shows locations of LFLs locations all over the place.

Decorating Idea?

Cool Comments

It's a very good thing that we got around to roofing the box.  We've just had an unseasonable summer rain storm and after today's moisture the box is cozy, dry and functioning in our neighborhood.  Here are a couple shots showing some of the comments that came in this week.  We even had a local author Donna McFarland donate two of her kids books.

Great comments

Gotta love Andrew's kid perspective

I've logged six new books (actually eight after I looked a bit closer) that showed up in the box over the last week.  Four new Kids books and four new books for Big Kids.  I decided that labeling the novels & non-fiction books as "Adult B----" might actually mislead the search engines.  So from now of it's books for little people and books for those of us who are roughly taller than the bottom shelf.  Cheers...  Stephen

Party Time

Hi all... Just a quick note. It looks like this Friday will work for folks to get together & decorate the box.   So let's shoot for 6:30-7:00 8/30 @ the box.   Bring decorating supplies & a snack to share.   See you on Friday!

Jared's Visit

  Tuesday night I headed out to the box to install some cabinet magnets which help to keep the door closed.  I noticed a young couple looking through the books and said hello.  It took me a bit, but then I realized that the young urban hipster with the sideways ball cap was none other than Jared a friend of my younger kids. Turns out Jared was visiting from LA where he's now living.  I hadn't seen Jared for several years and it was a small world experience to see Jared picking out a book.

  Jared and I talked about his life in Los Angeles and how active the gangs are where he lives.  He described how you don't stare anyone in the eye and all the young men look down when they walk.  My description of "urban hipster" might be a bit off with Jared, his tattoos and lanky young body fit more the urban skater, street kid moniker.  Regardless of the description we enjoyed a cordial chat and Jared's companion asked how she could donate some of her grandmother's books.  Very cool... this is exactly why the effort of building the box is worth it.

Jared's note in our log book

I've added a couple pages to the blog.  Here's a list of the books which have shown up:  Big Folks Books  & Kid Books.   I'm hoping to keep up with what comes through the box but frankly it took more time than I thought.  But it is interesting to peruse the list & see what a variety of material is moving through the library.  Along with the book list there's another key list of the neighbors who were instrumental in putting this project together. 

Thanks Everybody!

The Roof's on

New Books

  Last night I walked down to the box and Voila!  There were new books.  Someone had filled out the remaining shelves with some great books.  I added a notebook for folks to say hello and leave any comments as they peruse the books.  Another neighbor is a primary school teacher who gets back from vacation next week.  She's promised to fill out our bottom shelf with a bunch of kid friendly titles.

  Several of the new books that showed up were Man Booker award winners.  One aspect of the Man Booker titles and authors that I like is the authors write in English but from a much broader cultural reference than typical American writers.  Phillip Roth has won a Man Booker, but this list of authors has introduced me to some of my favorites like Michael Ondaatje, Keri Hulme,Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Nadine Gordimer  & Ian McEwan.  Here's a goodreads list of Man Booker winners. 

My first pick from the box: Kiran Desai a Man Booker prize winner

First Book

  Today was a bit hectic with the final coat of door paint, installing the box and setting up the first set of books. Various neighbors dropped by to help spread gravel, donate books and one neighbor I hadn't met yet held the door while I secured the box to the base.  This isn't the official rollout, but we are open for business.  Today setting up and installing the box led to discussions with nine of our neighbors.  That's a clear harbinger of a successful neighborhood project.

Still a few things to finish, but open.

 Anyone care to take a guess at the first book to head out of the library?  There was so much deep esoteric literature, a few page turners, and at this point just a handful of kids books, but what earthly tome would walk away from the newly opened box?  OK enough of a tease, it was Calvin & Hobbes, previously featured in an earlier installment of our little story.

Excellent day, friendly interactions with neighbors, close to wrapping a project, Linda made her amazing cherry pie for desert, and now it's off to the land of a good book, before waltzing off to the land of blink 'em and nod.

Take a Book, Return a Book

Book Count

Here's the current book count:

Kid's books:  We have 8 books, need about 100 to fill the bottom shelf.

Adult books:  We have 60 books, enough for two shelves & need about 30 more for the third shelf.

So clearly we need more kids books.  I've noticed lately there are several families with young kids who frequent the neighborhood on walks up Storey.  We'll also need some books in reserve as folks start to borrow books.

Thanks everybody!

Almost Ready

  Construction on the box and preparation on the site are approaching completion.  There are still a few tasks to attend, but our neighborhood free library box is nearly complete.  Yesterday the ground was soft enough after some soaking to allow digging the post holes and building the box supports.

A sturdy platform for the box

Donated Roof shingles

 We need some more loads of gravel and I'll need some help filling out the book selection but we're well on our way.  If you're interested in helping just give me a call or drop by.  Right now I've collected about 40 books which I estimate to be enough books for about one shelf.  We have four shelves and are thinking the bottom shelf will be primarily kids books.  We definitely need more kids books if you have any sitting around.

My thinking is we can get the box installed and then have a get together for decorating and filling.  We're usually around on Labor Day weekend so that weekend would work for us, or we could choose an evening during the week.  Anyone have suggestions for a time?  Fun Stuff...

Nice Red door!

And of course a few more garage sale books

Ground Prep

We've started to level out a site and dig holes for the mounting posts.  Today neighbors Cris Jacobson & Cindy Breaux were out having a look at the site and lending a hand.  The ground is quite dry but with some water from Cris' house we'll soak, dig, soak, dig until we've dug deep enough.

One fun aspect of this project is what you learn about your neighbors.  Who knew that right across the street from me was another Slaid Cleaves fan.  What are the odds of that?  The next time he's in town we'll have to get a group together. If you don't know Slaid check out this Music Fog video

So just a few more tasks:

Getting Close

Here's a sequence of the box painting.  From here it's just paint & hang the door and then we'll be ready to mount the box.

Primer

Interior

Exterior

Roof & Shelves added

Permits & Paint

  This project is getting to that solid feel where you realize it's happening.  Yesterday our local utility EWEB granted us an official permit.  We now have the right to "enter" the field across the street and appropriate some of EWEB's gravel.  We'll use the gravel to flatten out a space alongside Whitten drive for our box.  I've been impressed with the degree of cooperation we've gotten from Tim O'Dell of EWEB and Michele Wilcox from the City of Eugene.  Now that we're official it's time to round up a crew to prepare the site.

  Along with some ground preparation I've been thinking about paint colors.  I consulted my wife Linda whose innate sense of color is vastly superior to my own. After a bit of rummaging through the garage we came up with some ideas.  We're thinking a Chinese lacquer like red door with some other contrasting colors for the interior (keeping the shelves black) and a light green exterior.  Looks like most of this we have and will need to just pick up a quart of paint for the door.

Painting Party this weekend?

Books, Shelves & Building Ideas

Yesterday Linda and I hit some garage sales throughout town and scored with a set of books for the library.  These are either books that I've read and thought were worth sharing, or authors who are worth sharing regardless of whether I've read them.  A couple kids books to start populating the lower shelf for the kiddos:  High literature meets juvenile antics, what more could a neighborhood ask for?

  Neighbors have been dropping by with supplies and we've scavenged through a few basements and yards for various materials.  The black staves below came from an old futon gathering dust in Robbin's yard, and Cindy brought by a perfect 10' 4" x 6" post which we can cut in half and use for our base.  The staves needed to be cleaned up a bit and then chop sawed for the shelves, while the two right and left uprights provide a base for the door and edge for the box.  This contraption is starting to take shape.

  On the way to the Orange Box I stopped by the Acorn Park Little Free Library in West Eugene.  I met the homeowner Alpha who runs the box and quizzed her about what works and doesn't with their box.  I also took photos of these two ideas, first a simple latch with a lock nut, a couple bolts and a notched piece of wood.  And secondly using a QR code on a rubber stamp to identify your books.  Alpha mentioned that they only stamp hardcover books, but one thought I had was using a stamp & having people report where the books end up.  We could have a map showing where our Whitty Storey books have traveled.

  That's enough for one weekend.  I'll have some evenings this week to apply a primer coat and then it will be time to gather up the troops and set the posts across the street.

Build II

It turns out that Dr. Kelly our local naturapath and dancing friend has a table saw.  After descending into the circuitous caverns of Stephen & Kelly's basement I uncovered the perfect tool to trim up the beveled edges of the salvaged windows.

Presto!  Now figure out the cutting guide to keep the box to one sheet of plywood and a trip to the big orange box for supplies.  The cutting guide is a freebie online that helps maximize your use of the wood and does all the complicated math for ya.  Here's a link:  CutList 3.43

Rather than man-handle the 4 x 8 sheet of plywood across the table saw I had the Orange guys use their fancy panel saw to cut my pieces down.  Then back home and the basic box & door take shape.  The overhang on the roof isn't really sufficient for our winter rains, so I'll add another layer of plywood over this base to increase the front overlap to keep out the rain.  I can also add a decorative arch so the roof extends out a bit over the apex.

Looks like the weekend is sanding the window down, finding some hinges, paint a primer coat, hang the door and build some shelves.  Now who has some old door hinges sitting around?  Right now the whole project's cost has been time and ~$40.