Little Free Library

 

You're walking along tree-lined North Catalina Avenue in Altadena** on a warm, autumn day. Just north of Atchison Street you pass a sort of pumpkin-on-a-stick with a window in it, and you think, "I need to take a closer look at this thing."

This is not a pumpkin-on-a-stick, it's a tiny library in a Halloween costume. You've discovered one of the three Little Free Libraries in Altadena**. There may be more around here, the list/map is not up-to-date, and there are hundreds more around the United States. The mission of the Little Free Library is to promote literacy, build a sense of community, and build more than 2,510 libraries around the world ("more than Andrew Carnegie," they say, though his are somewhat larger, and I've never seen one dressed up for the holiday).

The little window is deceiving--there are two full rows of books: paperbacks and hardbacks, nonfiction, cookbooks, novels, books on business, books for kids, and more. The idea is simple: just come and take a book. Leave a book, too, if you can. I left four yesterday so if you can't this time, it's on me.

**I had this wrong. This is inside the Pasadena border.