Little Free Library

A number of months ago a new Little Free Library appeared in our neighbourhood. Being the Great Book Lovers that we are, my Beloved and I often walk down there in the evenings to see what there is to see. Most of the time it’s the same old books, but every now and then someone puts in a gem or three.

My particular run of good luck started back in March of this year, when I found a book called The Butchering Art, about Joseph Lister and the medical practices of the 1800s, and the discovery of germs and the importance of sanitization in the medical field (sounds amazing, right??). I thought it might be an interesting read and picked it up. As I read it, I remembered a story of a cholera outbreak in London (mentioned in this book) where mapping was used to track cases back to a single water pump, advancing the understanding of how cholera was spread (geography!). As I was reading this book I made a mental note to find a book about this cholera epidemic, because I wanted to know more about it.

Lo and behold! Only a couple weeks later The Ghost Map appeared in the little free library. About—you guessed it—that particular cholera outbreak in London and how geography was used to save lives and end the epidemic. That was for me! I took it and read it greedily.

Currently, I’m on a western/gold rush/Northwest Mounted Police kick, having just read such books as Gold Rush Queen and Women of the Klondike (and currently reading The Great Adventure by Alison Cruise and David Griffiths) and what books do I find in the little free library when we took a jaunt down there last night? Cariboo Gold Rush, Sam Steele, and Heart of the Cariboo-Chilcotin. Yes! Those are for me!

Somebody at this little free library has excellent taste and is reading things right up my alley. O Happy Day.

Three of the books I scored at various times from our local Free Little Library: The Butchering Art, The Ghost Map, and Cinnamon and Gunpowder. All three were enjoyable enough that I would definitely reread them one day.