A sense of serendipity

A Little Free Library has appeared in our neighborhood, with a sign urging passersby to “take a book, return a book.” The box is right alongside a footpath that is popular with dog walkers, runners, and mothers walking their children to and from school, so I’m sure many people will browse the books on offer even if they don’t take (or return) any for themselves.

Most of the books currently in the box are for children, but there were several titles for adults as well. (I would have claimed a paperback copy of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild if I hadn’t already read it on my Kindle.) But even though I haven’t taken any books from our local Little Free Library, I did leave a paperback copy of Junot Diaz’ The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao–a book I enjoyed but probably won’t re-read–for someone else to claim. I like the idea of someone else happening upon a new-to-them book that would have otherwise sat collecting dust on my shelves: a sense of serendipity in the middle of an ordinary jog or dog-walk.

These days I’ve fallen in love again with my local public library, submitting requests for books that look interesting and then feeling a small thrill when I get an email saying my book has arrived. Submitting library requests is like writing letters to Santa: you can ask for whatever you want, but you have to be patient (and have faith) while your request is being processed.

Whenever I go to the library to pick up a book I’ve requested, I browse the New Titles on display, looking for anything that catches my eye. When you spy a promising title you hadn’t previously heard of, you get the same sense of serendipity you might feel when browsing a Little Free Library: here, by chance, is a book for you, free for the taking, and all you have to do is claim it.

Literary freecycling is alive and well in greater Boston. The top photo shows the newest Little Free Library here in Newton, the second photo shows a phone booth re-purposed as a BookCrossing station on Mass Ave in Boston, and the last photo shows a Little Free Library in Jamaica Plain.