Little Library in Iowa City

I absolutely adore this idea. Corner houses for books. Free books. Like a bird house only slightly bigger. Very cute--I would put one on my front lawn. And very functional--access to the written word is the key to a lifetime of of possibility. Iowa City is a UNESCO City of Literature. We are people of the book, and we are in very rarefied company. Dublin, Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Reykjavik are the other cities around the world that have this designation. So it behooves us to promote books. But for me the compelling reason is that books in your house predict future success. As few a 100 books in a home predicts who will graduate from college. Enabling people to have books is important. Then there is the whole recycling thing. If you give a book away it allows it to be reused--someone else will open it up and read it. You might have it sitting on your shelf for months, or years, or even decades without opening it again. But if you put it into a Little Library house, someone will read it again. And then they might put it back and someone else can have a chance at it. It is a way to share the books that you love with people and let them decide. Should they keep it? read it again? Or pass it on to someone else? Their choice. They could even rip it up, burn it, throw it away--but at least the book had another life. It affected someone else. We have a wonderful public library in this town. We were named #5 in the nation for being child accessible. People have access to books. The Little Library doesn't fill that gap. We can take books out and read them. The Little Library allows people to keep books. To own them. That is what makes it special.