After enjoying The Paper House and Cynthia Curtis Pottery we decided to head towards town and see if there were any walkable streets. We were not disappointed and there’s few things that make us happier than a surprise independent book store! You never know what you’re going to find in these places.
This one had a whole Beat section, some obscure local books, a number of weird antique books, a French copy of Babar, the usual LGBTQ+ section, and entertaining category signs and quotations. David Bowie was sprawled out on the Fashion categorey for example. So much character!
And the shopkeep? Adorable. I was eavesdropping and heard her exasperatedly claim, “I want to sell to queer people, not rob them!” In this capitalistic hellscape we live in such a statement is so refreshing! Not to mention allyship always warms the cockles of my heart.
So yeah, looking for something obscure, old, or weird, this is you place!
Initially I had set out to do all the registered Little Free Libraries in Newport in one day. You know, something to do while I was killing time here anyway. In each I’d leave a signed copy of one of my books and it’d be a lot of fun. However, I failed to recognize two things: the mind-boggling amount of traffic this tiny island has and 2: how very little patience I have for it. Oh, and how much excess traffic also equals no parking. This was not an adventure for a car but that’s how I went about it anyway. As such this took me three different excursions even though you could probably walk to each. Below are photos I took and some musings on every one I could find.
112 Bliss Road
112 Bliss
122 Bliss was actually really sweet. I fund it on a grey day where it was threatening to rain and somehow that just made it all the better. It is, as you can see, pained to look like a little grey house. And it was plenty loved! On this particular day it was busting with the usual pulp fiction and crime novels. I liked its lovely unique character.
384 Broadway
384 Broadway
I like 384 Boradway because of the amount of pedestrian traffic it must see. It is located in some prime real estate for people walking by. In fact this was so much the case that the first time I went to find it traffic distracted me too much to see it but that being said you’d definitely see it if you were walking in this area. It was quiet, demure, and well maintained, filled almost entirely with two shelves worth of tawdry romance and crime drama. I’m definitely noticing these seem to be the most favored genres and if I am to believe the spines on these books they are WELL loved.
45 Weaver Ave
45 Weaver
45 Weaver struck me as particularly sweet not just because of the fetching Tardis Blue box but also the fact its owners were giving away free plants at its base. Double the fun!
26 Homer Street
26 Homer Street
26 Homer Street was in a cozy little neighborhood where I found ample parking on this particular day. It was interesting more because of its contents than its looks. Here there were the usual thick and very adult romances and crime dramas but also a corner that seemed to be reserved for grade school age chapter books? It’s possible they were all left by the same person just trying to move them on… or maybe this is a thing with this location. Not sure. There was nothing on the outside of it to make me think it was intended for a child audience but who knows. It’s good to be inclusive I guess.
4 Union Street
26 Homer Street
26 Homer Street was interesting because it showed up at random rather recently. It wasn’t in my first Free Little Library searches. I decided I would be the first to check in on it in a somewhat official manner. Indeed it’s a little unusual. It appeared to be a home made box with an unusual lock to keep the door closed. Inside I found it mostly empty. A few books seemed to have been placed in here in hope… I left an author’s proof copy of Milking the Cat that I felt was a sufficiently odd choice for such an odd box.
“7” Prairie Ave
Prairie Ave
Prairie Ave took me two tries to find because it appears they may have changed the address numbers on the whole street recently. I think the address is somewhere around 20 not 7. Still. Once I slowed down to take a good look it wasn’t hard to find and there was a ton of parking on this particular day so I didn’t even have to walk. I loved this one because it’s made from a stained glass window which gives it so much class and character and the books I found within were equally as unique. This was the first time I found an old volume that I might find in a dusty attic – I think it was printed in the 1950’s. It was encyclopedia of great composers and their music. Aside it was next to a copy of Romeo and Juliet, the Crucible, the first anime I’ve ever seen in a little library (Fullmetal Alchemist volume 6) a hardcover copy of 50 Jobs Worse Than Yours, and something titled The End of Nature. Bizarre. Truely the weirdest collection yet.
BONUS LIBRARIES:
I was unable to locate the Free Little Library at the community center on 20 Dr Marcus F Wheatland Blvd. This may be because it was inside the center and I… was not comfortable enough as an out-of-stater to check out. I also passed by a Little Library in a neighborhood near the beaches at one point but where I was I couldn’t tell you. And finally there’s one rumored to be on Spring Street which… if I had any reason to walk the length of Spring Street I’d totally check out otherwise I’d rather not slowly drive down this preposterously long one-way street pissing off traffic as I peer to either side of the street looking. Oh and fuck trying to find parking there. Nooooope. Gonna pass on that one!
Wilton is neither super close nor terribly far from where I live but it does have one key difference that I needed on this particular outing – it has a lot of Free Little Libraries and if I was to continue my tour donating signed copies of my book for people to find this seemed like a great place to start.
I thought this would be super easy. I’d just choose a town or city I was already in, look at the Little Free Library App, share the addresses with my GPS and voila! It’d be quick, efficient, and a little fun. This has not been my experience… if anything this has been more like a treasure hunt than an easy chore list. Sometimes I drive right up to them, sometimes I drive right up to absolutely nothing at all, sometimes I find the abandoned shells of a lost dream. As such it took me THREE separate trips to Wilton to get most, not all, of the little libraries.
Marden Road – Abandoned
The first one I stopped at was on Marden Road and it sounded really sweet. It was in the middle of nowhere aside a horse pasture and on the app it said it was dedicated to a recently deceased horse who I guess the local children would frequently visit- when it was still alive of course. Despite being on a farm road with very few houses or anything of note I managed to find it partially up a long driveway. Drove right to it. But there was something wrong. It was made from an old cubby freezer and it looked thoroughly abandoned. There was a sun-bleached spot where a sign must have once stuck to it. Inside there were no books – just spider webs, leaves, and debris. This made me so sad! I had the perfect farm related book to leave in it if it was running but alas no.. I reported it as defunct to the Free Little Library Website.
65 Main Street
65 Main Street
I thought finding something on Main Street would be super easy so I headed to this one next. I knew it was in a park. I drove by but my GPS claimed it was on the opposite side of the road than it was so not only did I not see a little library I didn’t even see the park! At this point I decided to find a place to turn around – ended completely distracted when I drove into the parking lot of the Riverview Mill Artist Studios. Luckily there was a sweet woman there that set me straight. There is indeed a park, a very little park, squished in between a chocolatier and a cupcake shop, and within that tiny park there’s a gorgeous natural rock fountain, a view of the train bridge, some benches shaded by trees, and a very elegant Little Free Library built to look like the surrounding buildings. In short I found Heaven – a tiny peaceful spot to read or people watch while munching on chocolates and freshly baked cupcakes. Wilton, you have it made.
10 Livermore Street
10 Livermore Street
Of all the Little Libraries I have visited this one really stands out. It’s sitting directly across from an elementary school so I was figuring it was going to be this hokey little children’s book cabinet. And there’s nothing wrong with that… but I drove up to it I was just delighted to see it. Blazoned loudly on it’s side was a trans flag (with a black and brown stripe included) and its front was wrapped in pride flag colors. A little gnome stood guard. I grew up in a small town nearby that really didn’t appreciate me or my unflinching gender fuckery so to see such loud and positive queer rep, especially for trans and trans kids of color, made my heart just fucking MELT. I was already won with this but it got better. As I stood there taking photos a polite tabby gentleman ambled up and practically said, “Can I haz all the pats pleez?” This cat was AWSOME. Obviously, I obliged. Seriously could have lost the rest of the day petting him. I knew this library was geared towards elementary students but some of the books looked like they were for middle-aged or young adults so I felt comfortable leaving a copy of Achilles in Heels there. It’s an updated retelling of an old Greek myth. Basically, I wrote about the teenage years of Achilles where he was forced by his mother to hide from the draft by pretending to be a princess. He also finds himself in a polyamorous vee with his two best friends Patroclus and Deidamia. So, there’s a lot of positive queer rep and it’s “sweet” (no sex scenes) so even though it was about teenagers and not smaller children I left it there. It just felt right to leave it there chilling next to a few other young adult type books. This library really made my day. I still smile thinking about it. So, whoever it tending to it – keep doing good work. Your library is absolutely wonderful and it means a lot. Also please pat the cat for me. And give him a treat if possible.
7 Forest Road
There’s supposed to be a Little Free Library on the playground here. I didn’t find it and to be honest I didn’t try that hard as my books aren’t children’s books and loitering around a playground when I don’t have any kids in tow is creepy at best. But if I am to believe the photo on the Free Little Library app it is adorable…
24 Maple Street
24 Maple Street
Honestly, I don’t know how I ended up here. I was looking for something else, I think the little library at the Methodist Church on North River Road which I drove past and then while I was trying to find my way back home I ended up turning on Maple Street and boom! I was in front of a little library! Mistaking it for the one I was looking for I fudged up the label saying where I left it and then when I got home to check if it matched the address and photo on the app I found out it didn’t match anything at all. It did have a chapter number but that came up unregistered. I seriously lost an hour trying to figure this out when I suddenly remembered there was an adorable bantam rooster crowing in the background and a sign reading Maple something Farm. From here I had to consult Google street view and prove to myself I had not toppled into the Twilight Zone earlier. This is what happens when you have ADD brain and you let it go hog wild. It makes tracing your steps earlier in the day almost impossible! Rest assured I am fine and this little library is delightful. And apparently new because it wasn’t on Google Street View. SIIIIIIGGGGGHHH.
195 Isaac Frye Hwy
Hilltop Cafe – 195 Isaac Frye Highway
Finally, we come to a library that’s not in town but rather out in the puckers again – well, sort of. It’s actually in the parking lot of a popular cafe. A cafe that was so popular that you need reservations just to eat there. It’s because it was so busy on that morning that I was focused too hard on pedestrians and traffic to even notice the little library and had to find it on Google Street View that night before returning on a different day! It’s a unique and cute one too! I deposited a book there and was well on my way.
As of late I have been sitting here surrounded by boxes of books – books I had written, published, and bought in the hopes of selling. Here’s the thing though – for as good as I am at writing books I have no marketing skills AT ALL. I could sit here and wallow in my own ineptitude ooooor I could get up, dust myself off, and try something new. So that’s what I am doing.
I have registered a number of all three of my books with Book Crossing which is a free book tracking website where you can register a book, leave it somewhere, and hope that someone picks it up, reads it, and lets you know where it ended up before leaving it somewhere else for someone else. It’s like those old Follow the Dollar Bill games. And where am I going to leave my books? Why not at little free libraries all across New England? Hit two birds with one stone – get my books out there and have something to blog about!
So I started in my hometown of Rindge with my latest book and only work of fiction to date Achilles in Heels. I signed this copy as well as designing the label in it asking for it to be passed around. And that’s when I discovered that this tiny little town has it’s own little free library on LaChance Drive in Rindge. So that’s where I left it cuddled up to a ton of dime store romances. And that’s where my tour of little free libraries is going to start! In upcoming blog entries I will try to do whole towns/cities that have more than one to choose from!
