Yesterday’s wanders found us at Home Depot buying $30 in wood which, along with stuff we had around the house and a few hours hard work became the Blackwood Book Box:
Like other book boxes and little libraries around the world, the idea is basically to share books and build community. There are a number of book boxes in Victoria, but there wasn’t one on our street. Everyone stops to look at Cthulhu anyway; now they can find a book while they are visiting the sculpture!
It really was a full team effort. Shawn and I did the basic build in about 3 hours yesterday; today, Alice helped while Shawn built the door and roofed it then they painted it. Shawn and I managed to mount it around 8 p.m. then I added the wording and stocked it while they went to get ice cream treats.
Of course, when it came to filling the book box, I came up a bit short… there weren’t a lot of books around that I was willing to part with at the moment. So the first few books are:
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (we had a second copy)
- Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
- Skellig by David Almond
- teany book by Moby
- Small tasty dishes for moms on the verge of a nervous breakdown (recipes)
- Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets from Mental Floss
- 101 Great Science Experiments by Neil Ardley
- I Can Make Costumes by Mary Wallace
There will be more… soon… one neighbour already pledged to bring some by, as did some friends, and I am always coming across books, so I suspect it won’t take long to fill!
In the process of looking for things in the shed, I got frustrated, and started tidying…. it spiraled into a full-out sorting binge as I cleared out years of accumulated bits and pieces, amalgamating containers and hanging more stuff on the pegboard where it was easier to see!
And each day, my hip/leg is getting better; today, I have only had a few twinges and minimal difficulty bending. Hurrah!
Here’s some other book boxes locally:
If you want to build one like ours, Shawn drew up plans (even though we didn’t really start with more than a sketch): How To Build a Book Box.