2026-05-31: A FREE AND BOOKISH DAY IN QUEENS

Over the weekend, I spent Sunday mostly in Queens.  With my old friend Dorothy from A.R.R.O.W., I joined NYC H2O in removing invasive grasses at the Ridgewood Reservoir, in Ridgewood, Queens NY.  It was a beautiful day to be outdoor.  Breezy, sunny, clear sky, a great day to be outdoor, before New York muggy summer arrives.

I was going to make a stop in Glendale, Queens to drop off some books for a Little Free Library that was recently cleaned out.  Some people are just horrible.  Take a book, leave a book, or if you cannot leave a book, take a few books, but NEVER EVER take everything.  It's either a little kid who doesn't know any better and needs better parenting, or some evil person who planned to somehow sell the books.  It turned out I couldn't find the post.  I had an idea of where the LFL is, I thought on Cooper Avenue, but without knowing for sure, I scrapped the idea of a side trip.  I was running late anyway, so that sealed the deal.

I still ended up visiting a few bookish places by the end of the day.  The first place was the LFL at American Legion 2414 on Metropolitan, near Ascan Avenue.  I dropped off some books, took two, one was a cookbook, a salad cookbook, that Dorothy liked, so that became a present for her.  Next, after dropping off Dorothy at her home, with a parking spot across the street, such an unusual thing to see in Sunnyside Garden, I walked over to the Sunnyside Books and Media Swap.  The Swap is a book exchange magnified many times!  There were a few tables or books, then more in bins on the ground, then even more on a table labeled Last Chance.  The typical book actually has a suggested donation fee of $2.  Children's books are free, but donations welcomed.  The Last Chance table has totally free books.  There's also a sign that says if you are broke then take the books for free.  It's New York City, at any point in time, there must be someone who is broke.  Free books, what more do you want!  I was hoping to pick up a copy of a DVD by Stephen Chow, ideally Kung-Fu Hustle, but I would settle for Shalin Soccer, too, but that day they only had books and LPs.  The donation bin had some puzzles, but I have no room for that.  On the way to the Swap site, I happened across the Amplify Library.  It's actually part of a small network of LFL-inspired boxes, but focused on black, indigenous, and people-of-color authors.  I actually have been stocking books by Asian authors for my home-grown book exchange, but I didn't have any with me for the Amplify Library.  Lastly, just by chance when I went to visit a friend in Jackson Height, on the notorious 34th Avenue Linear Park, there were some books spread out on two tables, free to take but donation also sought.  It may be there all day already, I was at the friend's apartment for only half an hour or so, when I went back to my car the tables and books were gone.

Four different locations for "free" books!  A bona fide totally free Little Free Library, a little library with the same principle but with a focus on black authors etc, a donation-suggested mega-library, and lastly just some person's attempt to recycle some books with a simple ask for donation.

SOME HEROES WEAR DUST JACKET?

Much as I like to do heroic things, I am not one to declare myself a hero, but I like to make jokes and puns.  The typical superheroes, at least in the Western Hemisphere such as those in the Marvel or D.C. universe, wear capes.  Batman, Superman, Thor, you know the drill.  The saying goes "not all superheroes wear capes", meaning some people do heroic work but are just normal people.

This past friday the 6th of March 2026, a member in my Buy Nothing group alerted the group that somebody dumped a few bundles of books at the base of the Little Free Library on 15th Avenue between 84th and 85th Streets.  She already took some but there are many left, in four or five neatly tied bundles, and the Little Library itself was pretty full.  The Library is in front of a medical office, but, I just checked, back in 2024 the building was occupied by the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn.

Whatever the business, if the books were left alone at some point they will resemble garbage.  The business will not like that and will treat them as such.  Besides, it may rain the next day and the books would be ruined.  To a book lover like me, that is unacceptable.  On my way home, I got off the highway one stop early and went a little bit out of the way to rescue them.  The bundles of books were still there, some bundles probably had books take out of them so the strings couldn't keep the books together.  I rescued them all, about 30 books.  Over the weekend, I added them to a catalog in LibraryThing that I named BuyNothing20260306 and shared a link with the Buy Nothing group (Bath Beach/Gravesend).

Free Books if you are in Bath Beach/Gravesend areas

In recent memory, this is the third time I rescued books.  Before this incident, someone asked the local library if they take old books.  It's an old policy, they don't.  Or at least not the local branches.  You would have to go to the Central Library by Grand Army Plaza, I think.  The nice thing to do with all those books is to find someone who may want them.  But this person wasn't interested in doing the right thing.  They just left a Target shopping cart with two big boxes of children's books.  The librarian lamented about the situation on social media.  Once I found out, I took possession of the cart and put the books away in a safe place, away from the element.  The next day, I returned the cart to Target at Caesar's Bay.  Over the next few days, I shared some of the books with a few members of my Buy Nothing group.  On the 5th of March, I happened to visit an LFL in Jersey City that was mostly empty.  In went all the remaining books from the loot, about 30 of them.

Before the Library incident, there was a Curb Abandonment alert about books on 65th Street near West 1st Street.  For that incident, I left the house early and was able to rescue the three bags of books.

All this book-rescuing work, I would like to come up with a catch alias.  The Book Rescuer is too obvious, I prefer something that, even if contrived, present a little puzzle.  Maybe a tongue-twister or some alliteration.  Got to think hard about this...

FAUX LFLs AND FOR-REAL ONES

Not too long ago, I discovered the Local feature on LibraryThing.com. You may recall that LibraryThing's primary use is for cataloguing one's book collection.  It has expanded into other areas.  With Local, you get a map of places in your area that offer books, whether for free, at a discount, or at the normal prices.  So you have Little Free Libraries and their kind, thrift stores, and bona fide bookstores, whether big chains or independent ones.  All in one big map!  I love adding the Little Free Libraries that I know about, plus similar places that are not registered with LFL, i.e. no charter number, or those with charter number but no longer listed in the official LFL web site.

It was fun for a while but in the end, I cannot stand the not-so-big map that LibraryThing Local offers.  It takes up about a third of the screen and cannot go full-screen.  It's a lot of zooming in and panning around.  I am taking a break from LibraryThing Local and already re-visited my Google Map called Little Free Libraries Faux and For Real.

I have been to many LFLs and similar places in Brooklyn and Staten Island, some areas in Carteret NJ and nearby townships, too.  However, since I will soon share the map with my local Buy Nothing group, for Bath Beach and Gravesend areas, I am focusing on Brooklyn for now.  There are more Brooklyn places to visit, but I will first finish posting what I already have.  Enjoy!

LFL FAUX AND FOR-REAL

GRAVEND LITTLE LIBRARY

 It is a cold and windy day, the type that one would be better off sitting in bed, covered with a blanket, the heat on, doing something enjoyable like reading a book.  That was my plan, at least to stay indoor as much as possible, but then I happened to look around the Little Free Library app and learned that there is a new one in my neighborhood.  It is called Gravesend Little Library and its charter number is 217085.  Until recently, 20abcd to me is considered new, but now it's 21abcd already.  Nice to see that people are opening new LFL and register them.  I know about dressing in layers but up until today I only do that for the upper body.  Today, I dressed in layers for the lower body, too, to make the short, but cold and windy, walk to Van Sicklen Street and Avenue V.  From the hint in the LFL app, I know it's near Gravesend Cemetery, but I could not find it at first.  Then it almost hit, it's attached to a utility pole!  I love the guerrilla tactic but not sure how long the utility company will allow it.  It was good to see that even though it is new it did have some books.  I added five books and didn't take any.  I signed in via the app too, First Customer, yay!

FAUX LFL RE-SURFACED

 According to my son, my faux little free library went out of commission in April this year.  I cannot seem to remember these little things.  It was held up by two keyring hooks attached to an I.V. pole.  My Mother one time had a nurse come to the house to administer some fluid injection and when the work was done we were left with two I.V. poles, one of which became the support for my faux lfl.  I think one time I had too many books in the milk crate and the wind was strong, the hooks, or at least one, got twisted out of shape.  Somehow I never have the time to fix it, until recently, some four months later.  This time I use zip ties and so far the lfl is holding up.  Come patronize, take a book, share a book.  On Bay 40th Street in Brooklyn NY, near 86th Street.  I still have the cello-shaped magazine rack that also serves as an lfl.  It is chained to the fence with a lock but this past weekend I found it laying face down, luckily still chained.  Someone either wanted to take it for their use, or just want a piece of metal to sell to some junkyard.  Sad, that is why we cannot have nice things.

MY OWN FAUX LITTLE FREE LIBRARY

For a long time now, I want to host a Little Free Library.  Usually it's a wooden box in the shape of a house with a clear door.  Inside one would put books, free for the taking.  Ideally, others would add books to it.  "Take a book, share a book."  Of course, some people would just take and not give, but it's the hope that in the long run things balance out.  An official Little Free Library would be registered with the organization, be assigned a charter number, and be included in the organization's web site, so that people can find you.  I admire people who are good at carpentry and build one.  Or people who buy a kit and register them.  I am not sure if I can sustain the supply of books.  In the end, around November 2024, I took the plunge and built a ghetto version of the LFL box.  It's just a milk crate of sort attached to an I.V. pole.  At one time, in my house someone needed a daily I.V. drip, for plasma perhaps, with a visiting nurse.  When the treatment was over the I.V. pole was used to hang wet clothes on.  Now it is the base of my LFL, which I call "faux LFL" because I don't plan to register it.  I already volunteer much time with my local Buy Nothing group, as well as regularly checking the Buy Nothing app and Next Door app about people giving away books.  I have some success with getting books from neighbors but something even better happened today.  I happened to notice that there was a book for the movie Thelma and Louise.  It was a screenplay about the movie.  That definitely wasn't there before.  I went inside the house to do something else, when I came back out there were three books by James Patterson.  You know, that policeman in the Washington D.C. area.  Wait, maybe Patterson writes about other characters, too, but that's the first thing I thought about.  My faux LFL is getting participation from the locals!  That's the best case scenario.  I add some books, people take some, hopefully to read or to put in other LFLs, people add some, things get moved around and hopefully enjoyed.  Yes, one minor, but good, problem I have lately is I do find books I think I will enjoy so I took them, now my To-Be-Read pile is getting higher and higher.  I was reading Book 1 of Isaac Asimov Foundation series, but then I found the book Dad Jokes Too (Two, get it?).  I don't know where the Jokes book went so I probably will go back to Foundation.  Among the pile is Motherless Brooklyn, The Hurt You Give, and The Time Traveler's Wife.  Anyway, hope the flow of books keep going, no books get trashed, and people enjoy books.  Should you want to visit my fLFL, it's on Bay 40th Street in Brooklyn, NY near 86th Street, look for the huge tree.  Remember, take a book, share a book.