Cochrane’s littlest library is still booked after two years.
The Little Free Library, located at 42 Benchlands Drive, was installed in November 2013 by the Thompson family.
“I had heard about it – and I thought it was a really cool idea. I love reading and just wanted to do something in the neighbourhood to help build community,” said Alanna Thompson, the host of Cochrane’s littlest library.
The Little Free Library movement originated in the United States by Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, who built a model of a one-room schoolhouse as a tribute to his mother, a former school teacher who loved reading.
The idea behind the Little Free Libraries is to fill a box with books, with a take-one, leave-one concept – to help bring communities together.
“It’s great. I have people come by and bring books to exchange and I have a lot of people come by to say thanks, which is cool,” Thompson explained.
“At first I didn’t know if anyone was using it because lots of people come by when you’re not home – but any time I am home, I go out and chat with people and find out a little bit about what they like to read or if they brought something by. It is quite an eclectic mix now.”
Thompson said sometimes people will read the books and bring them back and, other times, people will bring back a different book in exchange.
“I try to have a bit of everything, there was some philosophy, poetry, some classics, fiction, non-fiction – once someone dropped off a recipe book for ‘Living with Crones.’ I left it in for a couple of months but then removed it to make room for other books,” Thompson said reflecting on the more interesting books that have landed in her library.
Now only a third of the books in the Little Free Library are from the Thompson house. Of those books, some include her five-year old son’s children’s books.
“He loves reading and is one of the reasons we keep reading so much because he’ll sit and listen for hours,” said Thompson.
On occasion, the five-year-old will go down to the library to pull some books for family reading.
“We’ve read the Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, and all of the Lord of the Rings series. He really loves the library but he doesn’t always want to put his books in there,” Thompson said with a laugh.
The Little Free Library holds approximately 50 books, depending on size, and was inspired by Dr. Seuss with its asymmetrical shape. With help from her father, Thompson built the library using all-reclaimed wood and paint and other items from Home Reno Heaven.
“I’ll keep it going as long as it’s useful – as long as people are using it, it is kind of fun for me and it doesn’t take much work any more because the material turns over a lot,” Thompson explains.
With mini-library designs available online, Thompson wants to encourage others to build their own, filling it with books from local books sales and novels from the Cochrane Eco Centre.
“Hopefully more people will build them because it is kind of a fun neighbourhood thing and once it’s built, they are really easy to maintain. It is a nice thing to do in your community and it doesn’t take a lot from you,” Thompson said.
Thompson said she is glad with the community she ended up in, where she started her library.
“We love the east end, we think it’s the best. We’ve made a lot of good friends here – I’ve run into people sometimes who are at the (little) library and I say hi and they say they have been coming for months, even though I have never seen them before. It’s neat,” Thompson said.
For more information on the Little Free libraries, go to littlefreelibrary.org
