I’ve been reading books with a theme, once again. For the last several months I devoured any books I could get my hands on about libraries or bookshops. Then I discovered a sub-genre, if you will, among these. I was drawn to books that explored the idea of “the gift of reading.” I found this in both fiction and non-fiction titles.
“In the novel The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander, a young librarian loses her job and her only relative— her grandmother—at about the same time. She packs up her life and moves to a cottage in another part of England. The cottage comes with an empty red phone box, that sits right out front. The villagers tell her the phone box is her responsibility. Our heroine Jess fills the empty phone box with books from ten beloved boxes she inherited from her grandmother and creates a small lending library. Through this “little library” she becomes closer to her new neighbors, at the same time gifting upon them a small library that was greatly lacking in their village.
In the book The Gifts of Reading: Essays on the Joys of Reading, Giving, and Receiving Books, there are contributions by many wellknown writers with their takes on the gift of reading. My favorite quote is within the contribution by Max Porter. “I believe in the gift economy, especially if what you are giving is words and images, ideas and stories. Let us give and give and give.” In the back of this book there is the bonus of a list of five favorite books by each of the contributing writers.
