91–100 of 107 posts
Not wanting to too negative, but this is just a rich person affection. You don't see these in low income neighborhoods for a reason. It can only exist where there isn't a real need, because if this was meant to fulfill a need, it would be wholly inadequate. It's like all those ventilator projects people were making during COVID. Feel good busy work, most of it went straight into the trash.
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I think being free is implied in being a library
Some libraries require membership. Also some people have private libraries. Universities often have libraries which, at least, don’t offer all of their services to the general public.
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Why would you want something you'd already heard of? That's hardly a discovery you could get such a book at the public library.
Why would you want something you hadn't heard of? Nobody has run out of books that they've heard are good.
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Why would you want something you hadn't heard of? Nobody has run out of books that they've heard are good.
I run out of books all the time and go hunting for recommendations
Should keep you busy
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My wife wanted one of these so bad that she fought the HOA on it to install one. It's been better than you describe, but yeah... Pamphlets, stolen books, etc. And we know they were "stolen" because if all the good books disappear at once and never return, you know someone stole them. I've considered getting a stamp... But just haven't bothered yet. If the thefts start to really bother my wife, I'll get one. She gets…
I don't understand the meaning of the word "stolen" in this context. I've never seen a LFL with explicit rules on who can or cannot take out the books, or what they're allowed to do with the books afterward. If someone sees "all the good books," are they not allowed to want all the good books? What if they take them and don't get around to reading them, are they stealing them? I understand that there's a potential tr…
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Some libraries require membership. Also some people have private libraries. Universities often have libraries which, at least, don’t offer all of their services to the general public.
Not being open to the general public doesn't mean it's not free
I build these and have one at my house. Its been interesting. Had some teenagers try to blow it up with fireworks. Have to constantly remove proselytizing, mostly christian, pamphlets from it. Had to buy a stamp https://littlefreelibrary.myshopify.com/products/self-inking... so drug addicts don't clear it out sell the books to buy smack. Other than hat its been mostly self sustaining.
Drug addicts mess with them in most of the states I have been to, including Oregon, Washington, California, Maryland and New York.
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Sure, but how do you honestly know that? Is it based on the profile of the person you see looking through them? Some people don't look like they should be readers? Or the fact that the "good ones" -- the ones that people presumably want to read -- get taken? I guess I'm happier not getting angry over things that I don't know for sure, I'm happier generally assuming the best of my neighbors, and I accept that the book…
Well first of all if thirty books disappear in one day, that's probably an inorganic usage. If none of them ever reappear, that's another indicator. And then if the person you see taking thirty books is dressed in rags with a shopping cart, you can be pretty confident. Or maybe OP just means that none of them ever return; it's supposed to be a LF Library after all, not a LF bookshelf.
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I don't understand the meaning of the word "stolen" in this context. I've never seen a LFL with explicit rules on who can or cannot take out the books, or what they're allowed to do with the books afterward. If someone sees "all the good books," are they not allowed to want all the good books? What if they take them and don't get around to reading them, are they stealing them? I understand that there's a potential tr…
I don't understand how it's bad to pirate a book, but fine to freely give one away. Both deprive the author of a sale. Either they should both be allowed or both be prohibited.
Both of them do potentially deprive the creator of a sale, but they keep the same total number of things in circulation.
Sure, you can argue that philosophically it comes to the same thing, but the problem is that, if you win that argument, the powers that be are more likely to ban giving away things you own than they are to allow piracy...
I had my handyman build one of these in front of our house. Also, I make a hobby of biking around to circulate books between different little free libraries in my extended neighborhood. I've found some amazing books over the years, things that were very different from my typical prior experience of books. I like this aspect, that it can be eye opening. Each little free library has it's own style of books. Some are be…