The Books of Linda Vista
Check out the Little Free Library in Mission Heights
The Little Free Library in Mission Heights
Are you looking for a good book to read? Or have you recently read a good book? Was the book’s plot or message so interesting that you now have a burning desire to share it with someone in your community? Or do you just happen to be an uptight disciple of Marie Kondo and now want to rid yourself of that book to avoid cluttering up your super neat Kondo-ized bookshelves? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might want to pay a visit to the Little Free Library located at the corner of Linbrook Drive and Acari Street in the Mission Heights neighborhood of Linda Vista. If you go there, chances are good you’ll want to become a participant in one of the world’s fastest growing movements—the Little Free Library movement.
In case you haven’t heard, Little Free Libraries make up a world-wide book sharing movement (100,000-plus strong). The movement nobly aims to build community, spark creativity, and inspire readers by housing available books in little boxes that permit neighbors to take or share a book on a 24/7 basis. According to the official Little Free Library web site, the first Little Free Library started in 2009, with the first box built to resemble a one-room schoolhouse.
The sharing of these books is based on the honor system. You do not have to share a book in order to take one, though if you take a book or two from a little library, you are encouraged to eventually bring some to share at that little library or another in your area, when you can.
Upon visiting the Little Free Library at Linbrook Drive and Acari Street, I found an excellent selection of books available for prospective readers—books by great writers like Stephen King, Charles Frazier, and Scott Turow, to name a few—definitely enough books to immerse oneself in another world during these scary earthly pandemic times.
Each Little Free Library has its own steward or caretaker—the person responsible for promoting the library and ensuring it is clean and inviting. In this case, the stewards are Hanae Hara, Christopher Baker and their son, the residents of the property on which the library is located. They were kind enough to spend some time answering questions about their library for this newsletter.
The stewards of the Little Free Library and the Tiny Museum
Baker and his son actually designed and built the Little Library Box, basing the style of this particular structure on the mid-century modern architectural style of the neighborhood. The location of the box fits one of the major requirements for a successful Little Free Library—being strategically located adjacent to heavy foot traffic and highly visible to anyone nearby. It is located just a few houses away from the entrance to Mission Heights Neighborhood Park (which happened to be the subject of last week’s post (https://lindavistaupdate.substack.com/p/a-small-linda-vista-gem). Fortunately, it’s hard to avoid spotting the library as you turn at the Linbrook Drive and Acari Street intersection.
When asked what prompted them to start their own Little Free Library, the couple commented that they are avid readers and “always wanted to do something like this.” Their mutual love of reading and community came across quite clearly during the interview.
According to Hara, the Little Free Library has been favorably received by the community. “Families like to stop by while they are walking to the park.” She enthusiastically commented about recently overhearing a conversation occurring at the library in which a mother told her child that it was time to go to the park, and the child pleaded, “But I’m busy reading.”
Baker mentioned that the Little Free Library gets a healthy share of book turnover. While looking at the current inventory of books, which completely filled the box, he commented that “about fifty percent of the books that were here three days ago are gone.”
The couple did mention that they have personally supplemented the box’s book inventory by purchasing children’s books to make sure there was enough reading material available for the neighborhood’s kids.
As if the Little Library isn’t enough of a contribution to the Mission Heights community, Hanae and Baker have also recently added an adjoining Tiny Museum (in a similar Little Free Library style box). The Tiny Museum was inspired by a visit to the Morrison Street Mini-Gallery located in Portland, Oregon. Designed to “foster a sense of community” and “fuel the neighborhood’s collective creativity,” the Portland museum consists of a “pint-sized art gallery.” The same can be said of the Mission Heights version of a Tiny Museum, which currently features the family’s mini-artwork based on the Three Pencil Challenge. The three family members each randomly drew three colored pencils and contributed to the gallery with their respective creative pieces. Self-described as “a whimsical project to keep COVID-sane,” I found the tiny museum very interesting; it left me wondering what I might have drawn with the right combination of colored pencils.
The Three Pencil Challenge exhibit on display
If you need a good book, I recommend visiting this Mission Heights library. While you’re there, I guarantee you’ll enjoy the quirky nature of the Tiny Museum. You might even end up inspired to create a tiny work of art of your own.
In closing, when asked for book recommendations for this newsletter’s readership, Hara recommended two books; the first, being Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy; and second, Colin Powell’s It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership. Baker recommended A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
Another Linda Vista Little Free Library
If you can’t make it to Mission Heights, you can check out the Little Free Library located at the Little House of Flowers (at the Friars Road/Ulric Street intersection). The Little House of Flowers was featured in a previous post of The Linda Vista Update (https://lindavistaupdate.substack.com/p/little-house-of-flowers).
Book Recommendations
In light of the above post on the Little Free Library, we thought it especially fitting to bring back our popular book review section.
Newsletter co-editor Betty Rodriguez had this to say about a certain mystery genre….”I am fond of books that fall into the Scandinavian Noir genre. If you don't know of this genre, the books are usually thrillers set in dark, cold, snowy settings of various areas of Scandanavia such as Denmark, Sweden, or Norway. The detectives in these crime novels seem to be humorless people who are somewhat flawed (i.e. alcohol, junk food, bad marriages, etc). When you read these books, you have to put on a sweater or get under a blanket, they are so cold.
Many people are familiar with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson and this caused a rise in interest of the Scandavian Noir genre.
Some other books I think you should read if you are interested in this type mystery are; Jo Nesbo novels which feature detective Harry Hole, including The Cockroach, The Bat, The Snowman, and more; Henning Mankell who is a Swedish author well-known for his Kurt Wallander books, including The Dogs of Riga; and Karin Fossum who features Inspector Sejer in Don't Look Back, In the Darkness, and more.
A warning, keep the lights on when you read these books, light a fire in the fireplace, and try not to be alone.
Our regular book reviewer, Martha Altus Buller has just finished reading The Searcher, a novel by Tana French. She said… “This novel falls into the crime/mystery category so you amateur sleuths will enjoy it. It is beautifully written and psychologically complex. A New York Times review describes Ms French's large following as so devoted ‘that it borders on cultish.’ The Searcher is set in wild rural Ireland with a protagonist named Cal who has quit his long time job as a policeman in America and is dealing with the aftermath of a divorce.” Martha has read all of Tana French's eight books and recommends any of them.
Catch up on The Linda Vista Update
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