Neighborhood novels
Rachel Estes is known in her neighborhood as “the woman with the book house.” The small blue “house” in her front yard, called the Little Free Library, has become a way to connect her community through the love of a good read.
When Estes says she loves books, she’s understating it. She studied library science and met her husband while working at a bookstore in Knoxville, Tennessee. She also taught her three daughters to enjoy reading. Estes’ home on Saulter Road, where she’s lived for 10 years, has bookshelves in the living room, dining room and master bedroom — each of them stuffed to the brim. Despite a house overflowing with books, Estes still visits the Homewood Library twice a week.
“We’re a big book family,” Estes said.
The Little Free Library is a simple concept that has spread across the globe. People set up the libraries in their yards for anyone to find a new book to read or drop off old ones to share with their neighbors. Estes had heard about Little Free Libraries for years, but it was her youngest daughter, a seventh-grader at Homewood Middle School, who suggested they get a library of their own for Christmas in 2013.
Some people build their Little Free Libraries from scratch or create them out of materials around the house, but the Estes family opted to use the standard, pre-built box placed on a dogwood stump. After installing the library, Estes posted the news on Facebook and word spread rapidly. Estes said she and her family see people stopping by the library “morning, noon and night.”
“Hard-core readers know about Little Free Libraries, and it’s kind of fun to know that there’s suddenly one in the neighborhood,” Estes said.
The Little Free Library has attracted all types of books. Novels and nonfiction sit next to cookbooks, magazines and children’s picture books. The inventory is constantly changing as neighbors remove books and contribute more. Popular reads disappear especially quickly.
“Last week, I went to take the dog for a walk at 6:15 in the morning and The Fault in Our Stars was in there. When I came back at 6:50, it was gone,” Estes said.
When she first set up the library, Estes was worried about vandalism or litter, but none of those fears have come true. Her neighbors have completely embraced the library, even keeping it stocked while her family traveled to Kenya for a month this summer.
“People are respecting the library,” Estes said. “It’s been a great community starter.”
Estes emphasized that the Little Free Library is not a replacement for regular public libraries, but it’s been a fun way to meet people and build a community. The only difficult part is restraining herself from reading every new book she finds in the box.
“That is a challenge for me because if I see four new books in there, I’m apt to take all four of them so I can read them later, which is not a good practice. So I have to take just one and read it and put it back out there.”