A forest of
book-bearing trees has sprouted up on the streets of Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin! The program, called Forest Books by
BauFachFrau, is part of the
BookCrossing book swap club,
which brings free books to public spaces around the globe. Neighborhood
residents are welcome to leave a book they loved, or take one from the
plastic protected hutches cut into the tree trunks.
The
book exchange kiosk
is set amidst a tree lined block in Prenzlauer Berg, in front of a
quaint dessert café. All throughout the day, neighborhood residents
young and old busily use the Bucherwald, bringing their
old books and exchanging them for “new” ones.
The kiosk itself is
made from fallen trees
cut at varying heights and bolted together to mimic a tree cluster in
the forest, – they even still bear the texture of rough bark. Three or
four rectangular box shelves are carved into each trunk. The wooden
boxes are protected from the elements by heavy plastic flaps that are
hung over the openings.
Visitors can open the plastic flaps to
browse the books
left inside, or add their own. The urban bookcase can hold up to 100
volumes at a time, and on the day that Inhabitat visited books ranged
from popular novels to history books, DIYs, and children’s books – in
both German and English.
The Berlin Book Forest encourages literacy, while also promoting education on the supply chain of
books-
from forest to wood to paper. The Book Forest was installed in 2006
with the intention of remaining just until June of 2008, but it has
become so beloved that it is still widely used today.
London is calling! Actually, it’s Westbury-sub-Mendip’s new 24-hour
phone booth library!
After witnessing their weekly mobile library disappear, this wee town
in the south of England town wasn’t going to let their iconic phone
booth be taken away as well. Conceived by a local resident as a way to
save a bit of history while satiating the curious minds of the township,
the classic phone booth was recycled into what has now become one of
the country’s smallest
libraries.
That is so cool!!!!! I wish we had the book exchange trees here in South Africa. I do't know how that would work out though........ Some people might be rude and take books without putting one back. :(
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