Ojeda

I’ve long admired those wooden Little Free Library box-on-pole stations set up outside thousands of Minnesota homes to traffic in the drug to beat all drugs — books.

I see the book shacks everywhere I go. As it happens, my 55104 ZIP code has the greatest density of such book-exchange kiosks in Minnesota. St. Paul, home to the nonprofit group that is celebrating its 11th birthday on the first-ever Little Free Library Week, boasts more book nooks than found in any of 25 U.S. states.

It's too bad I squandered this reading opportunity for a decade. I was never more than a casual patron. Then, recently, two things happened.

First, I fell off my bicycle last summer and suffered a concussion that put me off biking forever. I concluded that I am too absentminded to safely cycle from place to place — I have had so many close calls! — and realized that I would kill myself sooner or later. So I switched to walking, often with my wife, who doesn't know how to ride a bicycle.

Second, I became disenchanted with e-books. I favor public-library variants, available for checkout from the St. Paul Public Library to use on my iPad or Kindle. This is great, but I became stressed when I got swamped with book-due notices. Hey, reading is supposed to be relaxing! So I went cold turkey (at least for the time being) with the digital reading.

Now I have a new book routine. Every morning, I set out on a three- to four-mile hike with my Apple Watch strapped to my wrist for activity monitoring, and my messenger bag slung over my shoulder for book harvesting. I never have a route, unless I am running an errand. The Little Free Library foundation provides an app with registered boxes shown on a map that I could use to maximize my book-plucking potential, but I delight in the serendipity. Even wandering at random, I will invariably stumble on a half-dozen or more boxes on a 90-minute power walk.

Some I wouldn't find in any other way. Of the estimated 160,000 boxes installed worldwide, only 62,300 are mapped. Of an estimated 135,000 boxes in the United States, only 57,000 are on the map (which is also available on the web).

Minnesota has 2,857 mapped boxes but "the total number of libraries is likely higher," Margret Aldrich, Little Free Library spokeswoman, said. Likewise, St. Paul has 610 mapped boxes but the total is likely greater.

That's up from 2011, when there were two known boxes in St. Paul, and only four statewide. Wisconsinite Todd Bol sparked the Little Free Library movement in 2009 with a box he put outside his Hudson home as a tribute to his mom. The number of boxes mushroomed from several dozen in 2012 to about 22,000 in 2014 and about 75,000 by 2018.

Bol died that year. The nonprofit moved to St. Paul last year.

Minneapolis ZIP codes 55406 and 55419 are second and third in metro-area Little Free Library density, after 55104. East-metro ZIP codes 55105 (in St. Paul) and 55113 (Roseville and bits of nearby communities) are next on this list.

The nonprofit conservatively predicts that 253,760 books by 317,200 visitors will be shared at St. Paul boxes this year.

Minnesota has more kiosks than all but two other states, California and Texas.

More than 300 million books have been shared worldwide since 2009, the nonprofit calculates.

You can spot Little Free Library boxes in unexpected places. Gov. Tim Walz recently installed one at the Capitol building earlier this year.

The Little Free Library nonprofit has encouraged small businesses in diverse parts of the metro and in other cities to install boxes as part of its Read in Color program, which champions books "that provide perspectives on racism and social justice; celebrate BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized voices; and incorporate experiences from all identities for all readers." (BIPOC is short for Black, Indigenous, People of Color.)

One of the boxes I have recently come across, on Lincoln Avenue near Dale Street South in St. Paul, has a sign reading "Library of Banned Books." No such books were in the box when I opened it, but I admire the sentiment. It's echoed by Little Free Library executive director Greig Metzger, who says, "We think book banning is anathema (and) not part of our world." He acknowledges that box contents are largely a reflection of the communities where the stations are found.

My community clearly has broad interests and does not shy from difficult topics. I am agog at my recent finds, which include:

Amid my book wanderings, a problem became apparent. After repeatedly stumbling home with my bag so jam-packed I could not pull its cover closed, I began to amass a vast library. In other words, I was grabbing more than I was leaving, which went against the spirit of the "take a book, leave a book" movement.

Oh, dear, there's that stress, again. I forced myself to be more selective when ransacking a box, more probing in my triage when laying out my plunder for inspection after one of my walks, and more efficient when reading a book to determine whether I want to keep going or try out another title. Still, I have a big pile to whittle down.

I don't just love Little Free Library boxes for the books. As one with an interest in architecture and design, I am fascinated by how owners lavish time and energy to make their nooks unique — often matching their homes’ color schemes and physical attributes. This is not a requirement. You can buy a premade Little Free Library, but I’m delighted at how many go to the extra effort.

I doubt I will maintain my current pace of Little Free Library visits forever. I am fickle in my reading behavior, and at some point a pendulum will swing and I will proclaim that e-book borrowing is the bomb, and that dead-tree tomes are, well, kinda clunky.

But Little Free Library boxes have broadened my world in ways I will never forget. Books they have provided would never become available to me in other ways — because they’re old, or obscure or weird. For this reason, I’ll feel a compulsion to make my rounds at least on occasion.

I just never know what I’ll get … and eventually get to give away.

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