There is one on my daughter’s street in Park Slope, Brooklyn and she uses it regularly both to give and to take. One day, I helped her carry a load of books to it and the next day most of them were gone. Great idea. I have to check if any in my neighborhood. I think our town library has such a shelf of “free books” to give or to take.
We have one in our front yard. Put it up summer before last, and I’d say the books have turned over have a dozen times in two years. When the supply gets low, we augment it, because they seem to go out faster than they come in. It’s always fun to see people in the yard browsing!
There’s one in my city, and I often take books that were donated to our library and put them in there. Sometimes I take books out of there too. It’s a good community service.
Our library also has a free shelf, and an alcove with books for sale for a quarter or fifty cents. One of the joys in my life when I was really, really poor was knowing I could get a book and donate to the library at the same time.
When I moved to my new home six years ago, I thought about putting one up but there were already at least three in my neighborhood of about 300 homes. I thought that was enough and I could just contribute to their libraries. Now, there are at least seven.
I use them from time to time. I try to return books I borrow, especially when they are currently popular books that others might want to read. I also contribute from time to time but I probably take more books than I contribute because I’m a minor book hoarder.
Do people who maintain LFLs expect borrowed books to be returned? People I’ve talked with seem split on whether returning books is even expected. I used to think returning books was the norm but I’m convinced now it isn’t.
That’s hilarious!
There are at least six within easy walking distance of my house, and all of them see regular exchange. I have definitely gotten rid of some books I no longer wanted in them, and someone took them.
There are quite a few in my neighborhood. We walk a lot and in doing so found one that had a steady supply of children and young adult books. I used that one to slowly whittle down my comic book collection, putting in about 300 comics over a year. I hope it was the kids getting them and not the 40 year old dads 
There are three or four in nearby Shelbyville, IN. I’ve supplied a goodly number of paperbacks, and taken away one or two.
I see one here and there in various neighborhoods in my area. And there’s one outside the (currently embattled) Founder’s Tap Room in Detroit.
When I lived in my old apartment some 15 years ago, there was a small book case near the elevator where people would leave books and periodicals. Few of the actual books were to my tastes but I did have a habit of taking the Reader’s Digests for some bathroom reading. I think I left some magazines and stuff myself. There was also a book shelf at the train station. I rarely took the train and thus never used it but I did drop off a bunch of books one day after thinning my collection. Hope someone enjoyed them.
The nearest official LFL is at a community college near me – I wonder how much use it actually gets given its proximity to a Big Free Library.
We vacation in St Martin every year. Last year we helped establish a free library in Marigot, the capital of the French side. This year we will bring some books to add (last year we bought new books).
My town has one of those; I didn’t realize that I could just add books to it. I will do so.
Good for you bobot. Not only are you recycling, but you are helping people who cannot afford to buy reading materials and making their day a little brighter.
It’s fun for me when I see that the books I put in previously have been taken. There are three LFLs within biking distance of me and a friend of mine had one built at her retail location.
I used to think that too. At least one very small analysis finds that LFLs (in two Canadian cities at least) tend to cluster in whiter, higher-income neighborhoods with well-educated people. Once I read the study, I realized that this is my personal experience too. Upper middle class neighborhoods have tons of LFLs because they have tons of people with an excess of books to get rid of.
https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/05/the-case-against-little-free-libraries/523533/
LFLs mostly help neighbors who already have books to share their books with their other neighbors who already have books. It does help reuse books though, which is even better than recycling.
For what it’s worth, my town is racially diverse and far from wealthy, so Annie’s hope is likely true for me.
They are all over the place in my neighborhood. Within walking distance there are at least six of them. One neighborhood over, there are even more.
Which reminds me, it’s time to load up a bunch of books and get rid of them by stocking up these nearby LFLs. It is to hope that I don’t come home with as many books as I’ve left.
Searching around …
None near me. Says something about the mentality of the people in my county.
I see them around. What a great idea. Anyone can start one!
A bit off-topic, but my friend collects children’s books all year long, and gives them away at Halloween (along with candy and fun games). I thought that was an awesome idea that should spread.
The prison I just started working at has such a box by the parking lot, and it seems accessible to both employees and visitors. I plan to learn more about it. It seems moderately well stocked but I haven’t checked out the titles. I hope to contribute some books.
There are two near my home that I walk by almost daily and a few more that I walk by fairly regularly. The two that I see all the time have high turnover. Books rarely last more than a day or so and then they’re gone. I assume someone is taking them. I’ve left books in them myself, and they’re usually gone pretty soon. (It can feel a little insulting if no one picks your book up right away. It’s like a statement on your taste.)
The others seem to be different each time I walk by.
It’s interesting to see what ends up there. Sometimes, it’s obvious that someone is cleaning out their bookshelves (once, there were a dozen Russian classic novels (I don’t speak Russian, but I can sound out “Tolstoy” and “Dostoevsky” on the spine of a book). Once someone left a ton of comic books). Sometimes, it seems to be just a random volume that someone finished and put there.
I do live in a highly walkable neighborhood - so, people are passing them on foot all the time. I don’t know whether it would work as well in suburbs.