A Detour for Little Free Libraries

A Photo Essay

Janisse Ray

Feb 01, 2024

Here is a gift for you.

Here the past lives on and future lives are born.

Here champion,

here bread and butter,

here we push back darkness.

Here books patiently wait for you to lay your bright and beautiful eyes on them.

Here their longing fills a box—coffin or shipping crate.

Here thousands of pages are packed tightly, compressed, without oxygen, smothered symbols.

Here a graveyard of words, each book a headstone.

One thing I love about this Little Free Library in Northampton, Massachusetts is that little people have access.

Here the time of reading is always upon us.

We came upon this extremely fancy Little Free Library in a small village in Germany.

Fannie Flagg in German won’t do me any good. I do see a few books in English.

Here were follow the plow of the typewriter laying down a furrow to fill with seeds.

Here is distance and nearness, repetition and variation, boxed and unboxed, bound and unbound.

My friend the pastor Jane Page reminded me of the Free Little Library of Banned Books under the portico at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Statesboro. How cool is that? Photo by Jane Page, used by permission.

I added *Wild Card Quilt* to the stacks.

Here’s free. Also freedom. Also gift. Also vision. Front-yard philanthropy.

Here tradition, trunks of trees, tongues.

Here there is never night, always stars.

Here possibility.

This is Jenn Ballentine’s LFL in Decatur, Georgia. Photo used by permission of the librarian.

The App

Frances Daniel of Clayton, Georgia uses the Little Free Library Mobile App when she travels. She reminded me about it, and I rushed over to add it to the post.

I use the Little Free Library app whenever we go on vacation or just go to a nearby town. Doing so has become a part of my travel routine! Soon I will travel to Beaufort, SC, for a first visit. I've already packed a bag of books to drop off at as many Little Free Libraries as I can visit. I find that few people know of these treasures, so I'm grateful that you shared about them.

A Free Book

If you operate a Little Free Library, say the word and I’ll send you a copy of my second book, Wild Card Quilt, to slide into it. My dad stockpiled some boxes of the hardback back when they came out, and I inherited those when he died. I can’t think of a better placement for them than a Little Free Library. DM me your address.

A Painting & a Link

My husband, Raven Waters, is a painter. When I was putting this photo essay together, I asked him if he had any photos of Little Free Libraries. “No, but I have a painting,” he said.

And something few people know yet. Raven has just started a Substack about art for people like us, called “The Art Sharps.” You don’t have to be an artist to enjoy his posts. He talks about how having art around you increases your creativity, wellbeing, and sense of enjoyment in life.

Here’s a link if you want to check it out.