The neighbourhood street where books grow on trees
On an oak tree in Judith Road in Emmarentia, Johannesburg, hangs a small, brightyellow house, just for books.
The house, stocked with at least a dozen fiction and nonfiction books, was sparked by Little Free Library, an international booksharing movement driven by a “leave a book — take a book” community spirit.
Housemates Jessica Breakey, Gemma Hart and Duncan Cosser built the wooden house as a way to connect with the neighbourhood, which they moved into during level 3 of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Breakey got the idea of a tiny library from a local park, which has something similar.
“When the lockdown happened and all the parks closed, I was sad that the tiny library was not happening. Then I moved to Emmarentia with new housemates and we just wanted to do something outside our gate that made us feel part of the community and made us connect with people outside,” said Breakey.
The library has been operational for two weeks and she said she hopes it will attract African literature.
“We really want it to be stocked with good books, like lots of South African literature and African literature that we are asking people to donate, and of course education books because those are so expensive. We hope one day we will be able to put a little bench and it can be a little reading space,” she said.
Rekgotsofetse Chikane, a friend of Breakey and author of Breaking a Rainbow, Building a Nation: The Politics Behind #MustFall Movements, recently stopped by the box and donated an inscribed copy of his book.
Breakey said the books they initially put out flew off the shelves and they were a little short on donations.
“People kept telling us it would get stolen, but why would it get stolen because the things inside are free? So far there has been a lot of interest but there haven’t been a lot of donations. The books that we put in have been taken, which is really exciting because it means a lot of people passed and stopped and took a book for whatever reason,” she said.
Tiny libraries have taken the world by storm and are often found in shared community spaces like parks and outside restaurants. In some parts of the UK, old telephone booths have been converted into libraries.
According to Little Free Library, SA has five boxes across the country registered on its database, though in practice there are a lot more.
One of those boxes is at the Outspan Farmstall, a small coffee shop and eatery in Bergville in the Drakensberg.
“We are on a farm and a lot of the community members were always asking if we have old magazines because they are so hungry to read,” said owner Sharyn van Reenen. “So I thought it would be a nice initiative for the community to swap and exchange books as well as for tourists who are travelling and stop and have coffee and a meal at the shop to be able to exchange books they were reading while on holiday.”
The library has been running for about a year and attracts a lot of children’s books and the occasional international reader.
“People leave all sorts of books. I have had books from the Netherlands and people leave lovely messages in them and sometimes they are in languages I don’t even know. The community has been very sweet and some people have donated boxes of books because it is for a good cause,” said Van Reenen.