Little Free Library

For my birthday this year my best friend and husband surprised me with my very own Little Free Library. I was over the moon! I’ve always loved them and I was so excited to be able to share books with our community in this way. 

It was such an incredible gift and one that will continue to bless others with books for years to come! 

My library and my kiddos and best friend's kids. 

He took the very first book (The Giver)!

After ton of phone calls and even a parks meeting where I was asked to bring the actual little library, I finally got approval to install it in a local park. My husband dug a post hole and together we set it up. My best friend and her kiddos were there, along with my two kids, to commemorate the occasion.

I filled the library with some of my favorite books. I wanted a mix of classics, YA, children's books, nonfiction, and literary fiction. In the month since we installed it I've already restocked it and it seems popular despite the cold! I love the location, right near the town hall and the water on a well-used walking path. 

My best friend wrapped the present in paper and covered the paper with beautiful quotes about reading (above left). It was just perfect. My husband engraved a brass plaque for the library dedicating it to my mom. She passed away from Leukemia when I was a teenager, but throughout her life, she never tired of reading. 

1001 Books to Read Before You Die Challenge

Here are the books I completed for the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die Challenge hosted here. I do this every year just on my own and I love it. I don't make a list in advance. Instead, at the end of December I get out my giant 1001 Book and a highlighter. I go through the whole thing and check off all the books I read that year. It's fun because I'm usually surprised by a lot of the books that are in there. Turns out I completed the top level, PHd: 16+ books. I've discovered so many great books from this list.

I've now read 141 books from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list.

Here's my completed list from 2011:
Robinson Crusoe
David Copperfield
War & Peace
Middlemarch
The Portrait of a Lady
King Solomon’s Mines
The Yellow Wallpaper
Jude the Obscure
The Invisible Man
Kim
The Hound of the Baskerville
The House of Mirth
Babbitt
The Garden Party
Tender is the Night
Absalom, Absalom!
A Home at the End of the World
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
The God of the Small Things
The Blind Assassin