More Award Winners!

Having featured the late Gabriel Garcia Marquez in our last post, we thought maybe we'd highlight a couple of other award winners currently stashed away in the Little Library, waiting for the right person to come looking for them... it's all good stuff, so if you haven't checked out our selection yet you really should do :-)

First up is Yann Martel's "Life of Pi", the wonderfully quirky novel about a boy and a tiger, cast adrift in a boat together, which won the Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2002 (and various other awards, not so well known in the UK, too!).

Keeping it company is the witty and incisive "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith - the story of 2 wartime friends in later life which won the 2000 Whitbread Award for a first novel; the Guardian First Book Award, and several others.

Just some of the wonderful writing available for free to you in our Little Library!

Amazon reviews of "Life of Pi" (4.2 stars out of 5)
GoodReads reviews of "Life of Pi" (3.9 stars out of 5)

Amazon reviews of "White Teeth" (3.3 stars out of 5)

GoodReads reviews of "White Teeth" (3.7 stars out of 5)

RIP Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Last week brought the sad news that Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died - though, to be brutally frank, many people probably responded to that news by wondering just exactly who he was and what all the fuss was about...

We pride ourselves in trying to offer a wide range of books in the Little Library, despite the unavoidable fact that it is, well, 'little'... and, tucked away in there at this very moment, that includes books by a number of Nobel-prize (for Literature!) winning authors... one of whom is Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

So - if you're wondering what all the fuss was about (and you get there before someone else finds it), why not check out 'Love in the Time of Cholera' - it's a very human tale of love, written with as much compassion - and rather more humour - than the title suggests :-)

In the words of Newsweek: "A love story of astonishing power and delicious comedy"

And, in the words of one Amazon reviewer: "A calm, poetic journey through the tortures and joys of love that is almost a life-affirming experience, even for the most hardened cynic"

Amazon Review (3.9 stars out of 5)
Barnes & Noble Review (3.8 stars out of 5)
Good Reads Review (3.8 stars out of 5)

Save Allerton Library!

We started the Little Library because we love books; we love reading; and we love to share that with our community. That means we are massive fans (and users) of 'real' libraries - big, proper, full-on libraries like the one on Allerton Rd. The Little Library is intended as a gesture of friendship towards our neighbours - it is not, nor could it ever be, intended as any sort of replacement for a proper library. 

• We have a great little selection of books, but it's nothing like the thousands of books in a proper library.
• We've read quite a lot and we'll happily chat to you about books, but we're not trained and experienced librarians with the skill and knowledge to answer your questions and help you explore the universe.
• However generous we may try to be, we don't offer internet access to anyone who calls by!
• We don't provide a refuge from the madness of the world where you can read, study or lose yourself for a few hours (as anyone who's met our dogs can attest :-) ).
• Nor do we offer any of the other specialist services you can get from a proper library.

Due to cuts in Government funding Liverpool City Council is considering plans to close up to 10 of the 19 libraries in the city - we oppose closing any libraries, not just the one on Allerton Rd. Libraries are a necessity, not a luxury!

Please complete the Council's consultation questionnaire (there are also paper copies in the library, if you'd prefer) to let them know how important you think our libraries are - we realise that tough decisions are being forced on them by Government cuts, but severing a critical source of information and education - especially for the least advantaged in society - is surely not the right way to go!

Please also find out more about the Friends of Allerton Library and give them your support.

Pursue Happiness with the Little Library!

Our old (still unknown) friend 'AB' has been at it again - leaving one of those notes we love so much on a book... with another strong recommendation for a book in the Little Library. And it seems AB is not alone in loving this book, judging by the great reviews it's got...

Good Reads Review (4.05 stars out of 5)

Amazon Review (4.4 stars out of 5)

"The critically acclaimed bestseller from the number one bestselling author of The Moment and A Special Relationship. A powerful romantic novel set in the tumultuous world of post-war America.

New York, 1945 - Sara Smythe, a young, beautiful and intelligent woman, ready to make her own way in the big city, attends her brother's Thanksgiving Eve party. As the party gets into full swing, in walks Jack Malone, a US Army journalist back from a defeated Germany and a man unlike any Sara has ever met before - one who is destined to change Sara's future forever.

But finding love isn't the same as finding happiness - as Sara and Jack soon find out. In post-war America chance meetings aren't always as they seem, and people's choices can often have profound repercussions. Sara and Jack find they are subject to forces beyond their control and that their destinies are formed by more than just circumstance. In this world of intrigue and emotional conflict, Sara must fight to survive - against Jack, as much as for him.

In this mesmerising tale of longing and betrayal, The Pursuit of Happiness is a great tragic love story; a tale of divided loyalties, decisive moral choices, and the random workings of destiny."

There are loads of great reads packed into the Little Library - so come on and get one!

We Love Notes!

People have been leaving notes in the Little Library :-)

Our old friend 'AB' left a note recommending a book she really enjoyed, which is a great way to let other people know what you thought.

And some other very kind persons left a note for us - with a book that they thought we might like based on the 'Dogs Trust' sticker in our car... they were absolutely right! We love dogs and we loved the book - thank you so much, whoever you are! x

We've decided we love notes so much that we've added a pen and some stickies to the library to make it really easy for anybody to leave one - so please do!

It seems we were wrong about our first appearance on Twitter...

Whilst it was wonderful to feature in tweets from The Reader Org, it seems that they weren't the first! Unbeknownst to us, our old friend and all-round top fella Syd Cottle had already tweeted about us, and even let Penguin Books know about us :-) I'm sure that truck full of books will be pulling up outside any day now...

A friend & his daughter have set up a 'Little Library' at their house in #Liverpool. Read all about it: http://t.co/GFOzsavZLt #inspired
— Syd (@EstatesPro) March 16, 2014

@PenguinPbks check out another free little library recently set up in Liverpool: http://t.co/GFOzsavZLt
— Syd (@EstatesPro) March 16, 2014

Our first Twitter mention!

As they promised, our friends at The Reader Org have been publicising us through their twitter account @thereaderorg - how exciting :-)

Our groups at @CaldiesMansion got a visit from the brilliant Little Library Liverpool last week http://t.co/YcMYWN5run
— The Reader Org (@thereaderorg) April 9, 2014

We love the idea of a neighbourhood #library swapping books - and it's so close to @CaldiesMansion too! http://t.co/YcMYWN5run #reading
— The Reader Org (@thereaderorg) April 9, 2014

Visiting the Reader Org in Calderstones

On Monday we went to meet with the lovely Siobhan Mealey from the Reader Org, who now have the Mansion House in Calderstones Park. They are doing lots of exciting things in the area; across Merseyside; and beyond - all aimed at encouraging people to read... which - as you know - just happens to be one of our favourite things as well :-)

We told her all about our Little Library and she was very supportive - we're looking forward to finding some ways we can work together in future and, in the meantime, please do check out all the events they are running in Calderstones and pop into the newly revamped cafe!

Fancy a Little Library of Your Own..?

We've had a lovely response to our Little Library, with a number of people who aren't local to us saying what a good idea they think it is (and they're right, it'a great idea - shame it wasn't ours ;-) ). These people don't really live close enough to make much use of our Little Library... but maybe there's another way...

Would you like to host a Little Library for your local community..? Not sure how to get started? We have a bit of experience now and - whilst not exactly experts of world-renown - we're keen :-)

So, if you'd like our help to get going - finding and/or preparing a cabinet; getting the books; publicising it; etc - please give us a shout and let's see what we can do together!

First comment!

Hooray... we finally got our first comment on the blog - and it was from our old (though slightly mysterious ;-) ) friend, 'AB' - yes the same AB that also left our first sticky note - thanks again AB..!

We also had our highest ever number of hits in a single day, last Sunday,so I guess all that leafleting we did was worthwhile :-)

Nice Neighbours

 There's been a definite theme to the last few days... and a lovely one it is too... first of all the talented Mr Roberts (& family, I think) left us some books just like he said he would; and then another generous neighbour left us some children's books; and then yet another kindly soul left us yet more books..!

We've had to move some of the books into a 'reserve pile' to be filtered in over time, but as you can see - it's still getting pretty crowded in there (oh, no - I'd stopped thinking about them reproducing until just then...). It's wonderful that people want to support us by donating books (and please keep doing so :-) ) but it would also be just as wonderful if a load more people came along and borrowed some too!

We don't want anyone to miss out, so if you don't have a book to swap to get you started, please don't worry about it - just come down and borrow one and then you can start swapping that one...

Where are we..?

Well, we've been out doing some more leafleting today to let our neighbours know the Little Library is there for them to use... and we realised what a lot of little tucked-away culs-de-sac there are around where we live (most of which we'd never seen before!)... so we thought a map might be useful to show people exactly where we are...

View Larger Map

This is what it's all about!

We've only just found this little gem, because it was tucked away on the kids' shelf - don't know if it was a swap or a donation, and no idea who 'A.B.' is, but thank you!

Leaving notes on (or in) books is a great way to personalise the Little Library and make it a real neighbourhood experience please keep on doing it :-)

More thanks to Mark Roberts

So it turns out that our talented neighbour, Mark Roberts, is actually our multi-talented neighbour, who writes children's books as well as brilliant crime novels (OK, I haven't actually read any of them *yet* - I certainly will - but 30 reviews at over 4 stars on Amazon tells its own story). He's also a kind and thoughtful man who saw Medb's picture on this site and left two of those children's books just for her - she's so excited and really looking forward to reading them... I'll read some to her and she'll read the rest herself, so I'll get to enjoy them too!

Post by Mark Roberts.

Great Excitement at No. 14

Yes indeed - because it turns out that one of our lovely neighbours is actually  a real, proper writer - you know, books and stuff. Real books... that you can buy. And read :-)

This is him:

http://www.markrobertscrimewriter.com/index.html

and he left us a very kind note saying he thinks this is a great idea and promising us some books.

He's even given us a plug on his Facebook site - how good is that?!

Post by Mark Roberts.

Another First...

Not, the first comment on here, no - we've had our first kid's book swapped now as well :-)

Our first (local) donation!

I haven't been able to see for myself yet, but much excitement yesterday as we received our first donation from an anonymous neighbour! (At least, we're assuming that's what happened - a load of extra books have appeared in the Little Library, so it's either that or they're breeding... I wish I hadn't just put that thought into my own head...)

Thank you so much to whoever it was <3

Now, come on around everyone and enjoy them! What will our next 'first' be...maybe a comment on the blog..? (hint, hint)

Yay!!!

And we're off - we had our first swapper today! How fantastic :-)

The Grand Opening!

Fanfares, celebrity guests, a band of marching elephants - no expense spared for today's big launch (also known as 'stick it outside and hope it doesn't leak')... enjoy!

Making the Little Library

WELCOME to the blog site for our Little Library. It's basically a book exchange - everyone is welcome to take a book, but we ask that - if they can - they leave one in return. We got the idea from littlefreelibrary.org, but we haven't actually affiliated to them (yet) because, well - because you have to pay them, and right now we'd rather just get things up and running!

We bought the cabinet that was to become our Little Library from our friends at Pilgrims Progress - and when we told them what we wanted it for they promptly donated a pile of books as well... many thanks to them for that - donations are very important to the Library, so if you have books you'd like to donate then please do! 

The cabinet is made of beautiful old wood, so one of the main things we had to do was to make it waterproof before handing it over to the tender ministrations of the Liverpool weather! There were various cracks in the wood, and at the joins, so the first job was to fill those.

The cabinet was also on castors, so the next job was to remove them and then raise it up off the ground on some wooden blocks.

 Probably the main single piece of weatherproofing comes from the varnish - we found the one that had the most words like 'marine', 'exterior', 'heavy duty', etc written on the tin and slapped a couple of coats all over - time will tell whether it really does 'do what it says on the tin'...

...but, to be honest, we thought it probably needed a bit of help, given the regular downpours we've been having...

 ...so we found an off-cut of asphalt roofing and fixed that on the top to (hopefully) take the worst of the weather and make sure the books stay nice and dry inside.

 With the outside secured (touch-heavily-varnished-wood), it was time to turn to the inside - and add some shelves. Those shelves are more level than they look, by the way - it's the camera angle, honestly, they're actually pretty level... and the floor is on a slope... and, look, the books don't care so neither should you!

Talking of books - time to add some...

Time also to create a display window in the inside of the door panel, where we can put more details about what we're doing and why...

... the following post tells you exactly what it says.

Almost done now - time to 'fill yer books'! The basic idea is that the top two shelves are books for grown-ups and the bottom shelf is for the kids - although there's no hard and fast rule to that... if you like the look of it, then read it!

And talking of what you like - frankly, we have no idea... so if you'd like something in particular (or even just something different from what we've chosen), then please tell us. 

You can tell us here on the blog; you can pop a note through the door; or you can just knock and tell us directly.

And finally... a lovingly made sign for the front door panel, so you all know exactly what to look out for, and how to tell when you've found it :-)

How Does This Library Work?

This Little Free Library offers a way to share good things to read—favourite books from your childhood or books you would recommend to friends; books that teach, intrigue and engage you.  All of us can help by keeping this collection stocked with good reading material. 

Whose library is this?  It belongs to everybody – friends, neighbours, and people we don’t even know yet. Anyone can use it. That’s why we want to take care of it.

 

Take a book. If you see something you would like to read, take it.  Look inside and see who gave it; who else has read it. If you can, leave a book in exchange.

Share it. Return it here when you’ve read it – or to any book exchange; or pass it on to a friend.

Give books. Leave notes in them.  Be a friend of all libraries by helping any way you can. Pay it Forward!

We support reading for children, literacy for adults, and libraries around the world.