Are Little Free Libraries Better in Wealthy Neighborhoods?
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. I recently had my second pandemic birthday. Im in Canada, and were still far from back to normal. I only got my first shot weeks ago, and it will likely be months before I can get my second. That means celebration options arelimited. I decided to find a way to get out and enjoy the fresh air, but with a new perspective: hunting for Little Free Libraries. Previously, I wrote about doing a LFL walking tour of my neighborhood. I really enjoyed the novelty of it, but several of the LFLs I saw were in disrepair and most had the same ratty James Patterson books or outdated nonfiction. I live in an area that I think has a fairly wide range of incomes and real estate values. There are plenty of rundown houses and some expensive ones. To find out, my partner and I packed up the car with books to give away, dogs to walk, and a camera to document with, then we headed to the nicest part of town. I live in a city with almost 400 Little Free Libraries  a staggering number. We decided to hit two different areas: the wealthiest part of town, Oak Bay, then the spot with the highest density of Little Free Libraries, Fernwood. Surprisingly, although LFLs are more common in high-income areas, these categories dont overlap. Instead, LFLs are crowded in the artsy part of town. This used to be a more affordable area, but its gotten a little more expensive lately (along with everywhere else in the city). Little Free Library from the wealthy area of town  While we only visited a handful of LFLs in Oak Bay, I immediately noticed a pattern. The structures themselves were a lot nicer than the ones in my neighborhood. They looked either professionally put together or like they came as a kit. Some even matched the houses they stood outside! More LFLs in Oak Bay  The other thing I noticed, though, was that the book selection wasnt any better than the LFLs I usually frequent. If you have ever visited a Little Free Library, you likely know which books Im talking about. Theyre the bestsellers from over a decade ago, beat-up mass market paperbacks, and other titles you can expect to see in the reject pile at a used bookstore (if were being honest). I was disappointed. I thought that the wealthy area of town might have donated nicer books: newer titles and books in nice condition. The way I see it, there are three types of Little Free Libraries: the abandoned LFL, which is now completely falling apart and cant safely house books; the average LFL, which has the usual mix of forgettable selections; and the curated LFL. The last category is for people who make their LFL an ongoing hobby. They remove the books no one wants and stock it with good stuff regularly. I was hoping that there was maybe a wealthy retiree around here who would be in this last category, but no luck. Little Free Library bingo card, including categories like Any Dan Brown novel and Any cookbook  One thing we did find, though, was a Little Free Library bingo card! This would quickly be a central part of our LFL hunt. It made looking through LFLs exciting, even if we didnt find any books we wanted. My partner works at a used bookstore and I am a book blogger, so we both have a ton of books and very specific tastes in the ones we want to acquire, so it is rare for us to find a book we want to take home in a LFL. I highly recommend using this bingo card or making your own if you want to do a LFL walking tour, because it added a lot to the experience. Little Free Library Google map, with each pin representing a LFL  To give you an idea of just how many LFLs are in my city, here is the Google map we were working off of. Thats Fernwood, and thats where we headed next. Our first Fernwood LFL find  Fernwood, the artsy part of town, has a LFL practically on every block. Some of them are almost side by side or are just across the street from each other. As we looked for a parking spot, we ended up parked across the street from a LFL completely by chance. It would turn out to be a good representation of the ones we would see in Fernwood versus Oak Bay: its hand painted and seems less like a kit. More Fernwood Little Free Libraries  We saw all kinds of LFLs in Fernwood, many of them painted and/or converted from something else. (The LFL on the bottom left was a newspaper vending machine in a former life.) I love the one painted in a comic book style! There were LFLs outside of businesses, a couple of the kit-style LFLs, and ones with three or four long shelves packed with books. We found a copy of A Little Life in the comic book LFL and Parable of the Sower in another large LFL. (The LFL pictured below thats held shut with a chain is much bigger than it looks in the picture! Its at least twice as big as the others pictured.) Even more Little Free Libraries in Fernwood  By the time wed hit about 10 Little Free Libraries, wed checked off the majority of our bingo ticket. Found. Located. There were Dan Brown novels and cookbooks aplenty. Wed even found a few books worth taking home. (My partner also found a couple CDs to take.) Yet more Fernwood Little Free Libraries  Although we stumbled on some gems, the vast majority of the books inside the Fernwood LFLs were the same variety that we saw in our neighborhood and in Oak Bays. I was being to wonder if there were any truly curated Little Free Libraries in Victoria, when we finally bumped into this gorgeous one. Little Free Library with cat figurines  This one is not only adorable to look at, but its clearly carefully maintained. Unfortunately for me, its maintained with parenting (the top shelf) and kids books (the bottom shelves). They are all in good condition and are shelved neatly. There more cat figurines inside, and the fact that theyre not glued down and havent been taken is a good sign! Alas, as Im not a parent (and dont wish to be), it wasnt a great fit for me. A little free art gallery and its contents  We even found a LFL-adjacent structure: a little free art gallery! Artists are encouraged to leave either artwork they want to give away or supplies. We took a copy of a zine called Break the Cis-tem. (You can see a peek of my pups reflected in the art gallery window!) We also saw a few abandoned LFLs  one a sad plywood box with no doors that contained only a binder and two beat up books, one LFL that had begun to leak and was full of musty books, and one with no door but that still seemed to be used actively. Early in our hunt, we almost had a line on the bingo card, but we were missing a Clive Cussler book  which seemed like an easy request. After two days and dozens of LFLs, we ending up finding one in the very last one we visited! We finished our adventure with three lines on the bingo card. Little Free Library haul  Here was our final haul. Three books, a zine, and  not pictured  two CDs. (My partner was very excited to see Big Shiny Tunes 6, and we played it on the way home.) Well, first I have to give some caveats: these arent all the LFLs in Oak Bay or Fernwood (if you can believe it). Theyre just ones that we could hit on a reasonable dog-walking loop. I also looked up a list of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Victoria and it ranked mine about Fernwood, which doesnt match my analysis. That being said, here are my takeaways. I think that Little Free Libraries in wealthy neighborhoods are likely to be nicer in terms of the physical structure, but they dont guarantee any better books. The selection on average wasnt noticeably different across the neighborhoods, though we did find more books worth taking home in the artsy area of town than in either the wealthy area or the mixed-income area  but I think that might have more to do with the sheer number of LFLs in Fernwood than anything else. Of course, the artsy area had more creatively decorated LFLs. It also had the only curated, themed LFL that Ive seen in person. So, in this smallest of sample sizes, Id recommended checking out the artsy, hippie, new age, theatre part of town, if possible. That group of people is more likely to have a multitude of LFLs to choose from, and you might luck out in numbers alone. Even if you dont, though, youll get to admire the artwork and design that goes into them! Like last time, I appreciated this opportunity to explore my city in a new way. It was like a scavenger hunt or geocaching  but on easy mode, since the LFLs are pretty clearly labelled on the map. I also was surprised by how much fun I had using the bingo card! It helped keep my interest even when, half a dozen LFLs in, I hadnt found anything I wanted to keep. So if you can, I recommend going on your own Little Free Library hunt! Its a great bookish way to get outdoors, see some areas of town you might not otherwise visit, and drop off books you no longer need. If youre lucky, you might just find a treasure!