People with Little Free Libraries told us it would take a while before the idea caught on, and it is catching on. Almost every day, a car stops and people get out to check the books in ours LittleFreeLibrary. Some have returned books and then taken others. It is a brilliant community- building idea, people sharing free books with one another and returning others.

We had to convince friends and neighbors – and readers – that we didn’t need their old books or books they wanted to get rid of. That’s not the idea.  We have plenty of books.

We put our read books in the library, people take whatever books they want, and if they can, return another book. We really don’t need other people’s books.

I’m proud of our library. I stick some of my books in there once in awhile, and also the new hardcovers that I’ve read. There are  a half dozen children’s books, some we put there and a couple other people dropped off. It lifts us up to see people standing out there and browsing the books, and we consider it a victory of sorts when people take one.

There are more than 40,000 registered LittleFreeLibraries in America, some communities have scores of them.  They movement was founded a few years ago by a Wisconsin man to honor his mother, a book-loving librarian in Wisconsin.

You can build one, buy one, or have a friend or carpenter build one for you. They come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors. They seem to spread like wildflowers. We hope that happens here. This is one of the Internet’s better ideas.

We are off to a good start.