I read something online recently that intrigued me. Some fellow—if I ever caught his name (and I doubt it) I surely don’t remember it now (but God bless him)—has appointed himself a one-person volunteer bookmobile. He is emptying out his personal library and leaving huge stacks of books in public places (e.g. Grand Central Terminal, Brooklyn Bridge—he’s a New Yorker) for people to take. The books come with notes that they are available free…and with a slip of paper with this “book-Santa’s” email address, inviting a reply from whoever chooses to take the book home.While a small part of the back of my mind screams, “DANGER! DANGER!” at the thought of my suggesting you do something similar, since one can never guarantee the safety quotient of an encounter with strangers, another part of me yells back, “Alter the plan! Alter the plan!”
In a day and age when people can meet myriad other people—both safe and otherwise—in a panoply of online venues, forget about your curiosity to meet the recipients of your largesse and just give the books away with no incitement for the recipients to drop a line of thanks and introduction.
In other words, don’t leave your name or email addy. Just leave book or books, singular or plural, and a sign saying, in whatever words, “FREE.”
I happen to live in a condo, so I have two immediate options for books: Leave them on our building’s laundry room’s table, where any neighbor can claim them for her/his own, or Leave them in the donate carton in the condo library in the clubhouse, where the volunteer librarian can, if she sees fit (and I don’t know what the criteria are—or even who the current librarian is), shelve your contribution in the admittedly limited space.
Just do something meaningful with your old, unread books, or even a new book if you’re sure you’ll never read it again. Do something like this fellow did and leave a largesse of books in a public space with a “TAKE ONE OR MORE—FREE” sign (or something of that ilk) or take the more conventional route and donate them to a charitable organization or a FreeCycle group. But brighten someone else’s life—with books.
And if you’ve emptied a considerable space on your bookshelves—hey, think how many new books you can buy to fill it.