Little Free Library: A Tor.com Original

Meigan builds a Little Free Library to recycle books she's enjoyed but no longer wants to keep (okay, for me, this is one of the weird bits; I cling to my books.) One user in particular seems a little odd, but enjoyable. They take books, but instead of leaving other books, they leave little bits of artwork--drawings and small figurines, and once, a leaf, an actual leaf, that is almost, but not quite, a maple leaf.

Also, sometimes they leave notes.

This becomes an odd sort of friendship at a distance, with Meigan wondering which of her neighbors it is.

Things get odder and odder, as the notes reveal more of the user's life.

It is, as one can fairly confidently expect from a Naomi Kritzer story, a bit weird, and sweet. In the end, this one is show more a little sad.

Recommended.

I bought this short story. show less

I read this charming little urban fantasy short story, nominated for a 2021 Nebula, and I was inspired to get my own LFL put up ASAP. A couple years ago, I had a Tardis built, but then we decided to move to a new city, so I've held off on putting it up. It's time, and this is my new home improvement project! Very exciting!

I plan to give away books that I have in ebook format and also don't consider them absolute favorites. I will enjoy sharing with the neighbors. I hope it inspires others, because there are only a couple of LFLs that I've found in my town.

My old city, Seattle, had many LFLs, and I had three nearby on my street. I really miss taking a walk and trading books and magazines and music CDs.

If you can bring me more such books, I will leave you every scrap of gold I can find.

Oh my goodness, I really liked this one. A little free library becomes a way to correspond with a mysterious, grateful seeker of books. J'adore!

It was a pleasant read, but there wasn't enough meat on the bones for me. It takes just long enough to introduce a compelling concept, but the ending felt like dropping a hot potato.

It's very "Hey! How about this cool idea?"; "Yes... and?"; "Nah, that's it."

I do generally enjoy open endings without the conventional resolutions; I don't need to have all the ends tied up. However, I felt that this one didn't quite stick the landing and I think needed more time to develop things. I've only really started getting into short stories recently, so I'm not sure if this is a trapping of the format, though I've read other Tor short stories recently that I think did accomplish this kind of open ending with more success and satisfaction.

It did show more inspire me to possibly start a little library on my front fence, so, that was fun. show less

Spring 2020 (April);

This was a cute little thing, all about the life of a 'little free library' someone builds out in the front of their yard and the interaction between themselves and one of their loyal book borrowers. I loved what was here, but ended up feeling like the was almost too open-ended and I was left with too many questions about everything to feel like any door properly shut where we left off.

Very fun piece about what might happen if a Little Free Library (which are real) had a patron visiting from another world (though sadly, as far as we know, no LFLs are actually portals to another world).

Be careful, if you start a little library, you might end up giving war advice and receiving children as payment.

Very cute and sweet.