Take a book, leave a book.
My first encounter with a free lending library was many years ago at a hotel in the UP, while Dave was at a snowmobile club meeting. While he was at his all-day talks, I was left to my own devices at the hotel which featured a hot tub, pool, free Internet (a novelty in the late 90s), and a library full of free books left behind by vacationers to enjoy for the moment, or take home to pass along. The novelty of a communal library without the hassle of a library card was delightful, and in respect of the sharing nature, I helped myself to one instead of greedily hoarding as many as I could carry. I don't remember the title, but I did pass it along.
Where I passed it on to was a geocache, or modern day "buried" treasure. Geocaching was a phenomena of the early days of the Internet that continues in popularity today. People would hide treasures in plain sight, usually in a canister, plastic shoebox or some sort of treasure chest. People would look these treasures up on the website, and using a GPS, attempt to find them. I remember leaving this book in a "library" cache, an exclusive leave-a-book-take-a-book military ammo box.
There were other treasures to be had while geocaching, and I scored through the years jewelry, toys and trinkets. We had what we called out cache bag, full of happy meal toys, bug tags, bug spray, the GPS and maps printed from the sites. The most thrilling find was our first, on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River, a hard one we didn't know was hard until we acquainted ourselves with what all the symbols meant. Unfortunately, we haven't gone on a hunt since we moved back to Michigan 8 years ago.
But I'm ready for my next treasure hunt, and that would be discovering a local Little Free Library. A Wisconsin man came up with the idea in honor of his literature loving mom, and simply put a cabinet out on his front his house filled with books with one rule: you take a book and you leave one behind.
Since that inception, the Little Free Library has grown in number to more than 10,000 across the US. All you need to get started is erect a secure cabinet on your property and encourage visitors to participate. The little libraries have as much personality as the owners themselves and can run on themes. My guess is if I were to be able to post one at home, it would be a Little House library to start.
http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/index.html
http://www.geocaching.com/
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