The world is your library!

There is something great about hunting around for nice books. So when this caught my attention I thought it was worth a share. Sophie Pearl Edward from over at imitationisthegreatestformofflattery (definitely worth a peek if all things fashion/beauty take your fancy!) stumbled upon this:

After a bit of googling I discovered that this is actually a rather unconventional library! In a bid to deal with the combined problems of losing both their mobile library and their red phone box, the residents of a Somerset village, Westbury-sub-Mendit, took matters into their own hands utilising this old phone box as a rather unconventional library. This struck me as a really great idea. And indeed on looking into it some more it seems many people agree. It turns out this isn’t so rare, but somewhat of a growing trend with somewhere in the range of fifty phone box libraries having popped up across England! While the majority of these exist as mini-libraries, others act to facilitate book swapping or exchanges where people will leave one book behind and take another away.

 I quite like this book exchange idea. While there are some books that inevitably we just grow too attached to to part with, I’m a firm believer in sharing a good story. As this very blog might suggest, I rather enjoy exclaiming over something I've read and enjoyed, and I certainly take a quiet pleasure in recommending books I know someone else will enjoy! I also like the aspect of novelty in finding books in odd places just waiting to be read. Picture sitting down at the train station, and there on the bench next to you, a nice little paperback just waiting to be opened. Or, on the coffee shop table, the bus seat, the park bench. Books enjoyed by many, set free to be enjoyed by many more.  So you can imagine I was even more intrigued when some further googling, clicking, link following and general procrastination led me to the bookcrossing website. I have on occasion heard tales of people leaving books in odd places, but I had no idea there was an organised means to do so, a whole online community of people willing to trade! Bookcrossing offers exactly this. You just sign up and are free to start hunting for books that have been 'released' in your local area. If you think about it, (minus a language barrier here or there) the world literally becomes a giant library, a network of hunting for, swapping, recommending and discussing literary finds, a network to avail of wherever you are! Genius! 

So what are you waiting for!? Get swapping - an exchange revolution awaits you!