apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This is wonderful.

When I ran track in college, there was a home near the school where they'd built a brick paved drinking fountain at the base of their driveway. Obviously, the owners were runners, but the fountain was intended for the entire community.

It's still one of my favorite memories about that place.

Kelly
http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com

Ideas like this are great in theory, but I would be really surprised if and how long something like this would REALLY last. I went to Texas A&M- a conservative University that prides itself on southern hospitality. Years ago they started a "yellow bike program" and painted a bunch of community bikes yellow and left them places on campus. The idea was that anyone could use them and then leave them for someone else. Well... they all ended up in trees. :/

In my neighborhood and the ones I grew up in, either the bookcase or the books would come up missing (if not both). So bad choice.

You mean libraries? You are funny!

I think this is worth a shot. I think the trick is to put it on a street where people often congregate and that would help minimize self helpings to the entire book case.

An ideal place in LA would be on Montana Street. People stroll there often and it seems to be a reading sort of crowd. Anybody want to do it with me here? Contact me on my contact page if you do.

http://www.modernests.com

Libraries for lazy people! :-) I give it three weeks. Let's check back in on the spot and see if the bookshelves (which look bolted down) and the books are still there. :-)

do they have public libraries where you live? they are free, they have an enormous amount of books, and everyone can have access to them.

Donating a book is one of the best things you can do. I volunteer at a thrift store. You'd be surprised how many people can't afford to buy books. When they're worried about how to put food on the table, the latest Dan Brown novel is not high on the family's priorities. I see so many people, especially young people, who wouldn't have any decent reading if not for the generosity of people like you.

My only wish is that you would think of "the neighborhood" on a much larger scale. We're all in the same neighborhood, even those poor people on the other side of town.

I agree.... this is not a new concept. I love my library - it feeds my voracious appetite for design books, and it has all the latest ones. It's like Borders for free.

they have those things all over the country... i think they're called LOCAL LIBRARIES

Love it.

(thank you Andrew Carnegie)

As a librarian I am delighted to see all the nods to libraries here in the comments. Thank you, and please support your local libraries every time you can, at the polls and with donations.

Having said that, I love this kind of community swap approach (as an add-on kind of library). They tried this for a while at a subway station near where I live but the books didn't stay for long, and got replaced by scary pamphlets of one sort or another. On the other hand it works at our local grocery store, as well as laundromats, and the staff lounge where I work. It has its place.

We have a large lounge area in the lobby of my apartment building that has a community bookshelf, and it works pretty well. There are many times that the books on the shelf don't interest me whatsoever, but every once in a while (like last night) I find something that I'm very excited to read.

The residents of my building and I still patronize our local library. Many of us also still donate our unwanted books to thrift stores, but at least in my case, I donate when I'm doing a big "shelf purge." The community bookshelf is a nice place to share a single book with your neighbors.

A guy in Chicago tried to do this a couple of years ago. I don't know how successful it was, or if it's even still there. Probably not.

I usually "donate" my used (and less-than-loved) paperbacks by leaving them at Potbelly's, where they have a little book collection by the register.

I saw this on decor8 too and thought it was a fabulous idea. I'd be curious to see if this would work in my area.

They had one of these at my old job. It was full of trashy harlequin novels. Girls would disappear into one of the corner cubicles during an overnight shift and finish it in one sitting, only getting up to pee.

When I worked at a Starbucks in Davis Square (Somerville, MA), we had a "library" area and it was a community bookshelf. At my yoga studio, they have a similar idea. I think there is a place for something like this in every community, in addition to libraries.

I think libraries already serve this purpose and also promote accountability by charging fines to people who choose not to return materials.

In Germany you pay a yearly/quarterly fee to use the library. They are not free, something we take for granted in the U.S.

@desylic!ous: it's different from city to city. here in hannover the public library is for free. in münster, where i lived before, you pay 15€ yearly. fair enough.

and well, seems holly from decor8 lives in my street. i can see this "community bookcase" from my window.

@desylic!ous: it's different from city to city. here in hannover the public library is for free. in muenster, where i lived before, you pay 15euro (21.8$) yearly. fair enough. and well, i can see this bookcase from my window. seems like holly from decor8 lives in my street.

I like the IDEA of it. Sadly, I do not have faith in people lol

oh my gosh, this is awesome!
I live in Logan Square, Chicago. In the boulevard, someone turned an old newspaper stand into a community book exchange. Every time I go to look inside, there are tons of books! I frequently see all sorts of people looking in for a new book to read. So I think it's definitely possible! I hope you try it!

We had a few spots like that on campus when I was in college. There would be a bookshelf in a hall of an academic building, and poeple could leave or take a book as they please. They were usually pretty full, and the selection changed quite a bit, so obviously people where using them. I have also seen things like this through "Book Crossing" which promotes the passing along of books for free. A hostel I stayed at in Berlin, Germany had a Book Crossing shelf. The idea is amazing for travelers, who cannot pack lots of books with them (my friend and I picked two books we were both interested in reading, and traded when we were finished so we only had to carry two in addition to our one, lonely guide book). I like the idea, and would love to see more of these kinds of projects carried out in schools and office buildings.

I love this idea. In Miami the libraries are not that conveniently located and furthermore because I am at work during the day even on the weekends, I miss out. This could possibly work in certain neighborhoods. Here, I think it would work over near Hollywood Beach and in the Wilton Manors area where the regulars respect one another. Of course it would have to be more weatherproof, as we suffer from thunderstorms constantly.

Off topic, but anyone have information on that bookcase? I adore it.