Run the “Little House on 17th Street – Little Free Library 5K Route”!! – http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=519329
(I needed a route to train with the Couch to 5K+ program, and found one that will give me right about the 5k mark, and realized – if people were to start at the library and finish at the library – they’d have 5K+ under their belts too. So I made it official, enjoy. Not much scenery, but it works.)
We are readers.
I’ve always looked at the ability to read as one of those things that no one can ever take away from you. They might be able to take your property, and your freedom – they might be able to deny you the opportunity for higher education, but you will always know how to read… and as long as you can read, you have a distinct advantage over those who cannot.
You need not wait on others, you can educate yourself.
But simply knowing how to read isn’t enough – it is incredibly important for us to actually exercise that skill over time. Mark Twain once said, “A man who doesn’t read has no advantage over the man who cannot…”
There are a lot of reasons that people don’t read today; the prevalence of electronic devices, distraction, gaming, time constraints, book availability and much more. One of those issues is easily fixable. Put a library in your front yard…
I first learned about Little Free Libraries when my friend Ryan and his wife Sonja began to build their own over on Woodhill Rd. NW out in West Salem. Being a lover of books and reading, I absolutely fell in love with the idea, and checked out a page that Ryan belonged to on Facebook dedicated to the Little Free Libraries in the Salem Area. The more I read, the more I fell in love with the idea. I declared to Shannon that we had to have one, it wasn’t really a negotiation, it was simply going to happen. When we started the process, there were two LFL’s in Salem – the original on Summer Street SE set up by the Ramey family, the second one on Woodhill set up by the Somerville’s and now there is a third, located at the Little House on 17th Street stewarded by the Light family.
Since we’re redesigning the entire front yard anyway putting in the vegetable gardens out front, and we had all the leftover recycled material from the chicken coop build, I put one together using all of our leftover scrap material. The only thing I purchased was the plexiglass in the door and the L metal on the edges of the metal roof.
We’re happy with it.
Here is our Little Free Library – if you’re in the neighborhood; stop by and check out a book! Then stop in and say hello! 🙂
Current Titles in the Little House on 17th Street’s Little Free Library:
—Coming Soon…
Media and Press:
Little House on 17th Street 