Don't You Just Love A Good Book

     Who said that physical books are disappearing? Public libraries are flourishing even though they have adapted their programming to draw in more people. They still have rows and rows of books. Even book stores have many options of books to be purchased and read but what do you do with all those books once you have read them?

     My parents' house was always filled with books. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of books from various eras, topics and types. History books, educational, picture books, biographies, novels, instructional (sewing, knitting, etc.), recipe books and many more. So many interesting books. I remember when I was young, sitting in front of one particular book shelf reading the story of the Royal family when Queen Elizabeth the second was a young girl. Another book on the shelf was the story concerning the Dionne Quintuplets who were born in Northern Ontario and survived into adulthood. They both had lots of pictures and I returned to those books time and again. 

   Well, I too enjoy reading and have accumulated many, many books. Many I had read but many I had not. At our house in Newmarket, we had hundreds of books. I had a collection of Nellie McClung books, a series of Charlie Chan books by Earl Derr Biggers and several others. We had tons of children's books that we read to our children as they were growing up.

     Today, there are book exchanges and Little Free Libraries. Many of the camp grounds that we stay at during our travels have book exchanges so we always look through the books to see if any interest us. Of course, there is always at least one. We take one and leave one. What an inexpensive way to read more books!  Now, some people are building a Library box and have it located on their front lawn. Some communities have them located in public places where people gather, such as a parks. Why not share?

An example of a Little Free Library

     In one community we visited along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia we found a unique free library. It looks like a bird house but when you open the front it is a Little Free Library.

It looks like a bird house but when you open the door....

....It is filled with books. We took a few and left a few.
Nice exchange!

Notice that the roof is built with
old Nova Scotia licence plates

     When we were at the Halifax airport last November, we found a book dispenser which was sponsored by the Halifax library system. It had a wide variety of books in it from children's books to novels to travel books. All you needed was your library card and you could open the dispenser and check out a book. Upon your return from your trip you just checked it into the box. Ingenious.

Here is the library dispenser at the Halifax airport

Al is looking through the selection but
 didn't see any he wanted to read.

     Each year, we bring a box of books from Ontario to read and then pass along. However, we keep finding books at thrift shops, etc, so we continue to accumulate more. I just can't pass on a good book. It is nice to read and be able to pass them along to others who may enjoy them as well. When we finish travelling, I would like to build a unique library box and encourage others to read and exchange their books.

     What have you read today? Me: Just finished N is for Noose by Sue Grafton as well as Titanic Halifax: A Guide to Sites by Alan Jeffers and Rob Gordon and  I am now reading 31 Days Food Revolution by Ocean Robbins.