Not long ago I was on the island of Kauai when I spotted a street library in rustic Hanalei, and I was fascinated by this free exchange of books on the main street. An old wooden pantry was full of island reading books that one can find the world over – spy novels, mysteries, fantasy, history, romance and travel books – and so I slipped my poetry book among The Destroyer Killer (Edwin Hoyt), Murder in the House (Margaret Truman) and Husbands, Lover, Stranger (Suzanne Forster). A little poetry would not go astray, I reasoned, and would give the reader a choice for an island afternoon of escape reading.
A quote from the Pakistani youth activist Malala Yousafzai was pinned to the window of the Kauai street library, “Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons.” Good on you Malala. Another note on the library said, “Books and chocolate make life bearable. A little more bearable is good for us all.
A week later I was in Woodbridge, Tasmania, and spotted a street library there, with books on gardening and travel, a novel by Tim Winton and a book called Death and the Devil that I will probably never read. I popped in a poetry book here too – it’s an easy way to sprinkle them around the state. The Woodbridge site had four different birdhouse type containers for the books (supported by the Woodbridge School, Village Store, local hall and post office), demonstrating the region’s passion for reading and escaping. Islands are good for escaping to, and these little libraries show us that a good read is the perfect way to also escape to an island in our minds.
Up on Magnetic Island, off Townsville, last winter I spotted several types of containers that hold books. A birdhouse included Donald Trump’s Think Like a Billionaire, John Grisham’s The Rooster Bar and Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. An old Kelvinator refrigerator spilled over with books ranging from Nancy Cato to surrealism to Banjo Patterson’s complete book of poetry. What an ideal variety of books for island reading; no need to add mine, as I couldn’t compete with Banjo.
At third site on Magnetic Island at Gilligan’s Book Exchange (what is it about islands that makes people want to read so much; is it that we feel we have more time on islands?) I found escape novels such as Wilbur Smith’s The Angels Weep and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. A sign on a shop window said Warning: Reading may seriously damage your ignorance.
Islands are wise places, full of quiet uprisings, from Tasmania to Magnetic to Hawaii.
In the heart of Mullumbimby, not far from Bluesfest, on our big island, I saw bookshelves that were built into the outside windows of the Santos Organic Shop. Among dozens of books I found a complete set of Funk and Wagnall’s Dictionaries, The Bible and books by Erica Jong (Parachutes and Kissing), Charles Dickens (Great Expectations) and Danielle Steele (Lightning). There were also books on therapy and one on cooking cupcakes and muffins – good hippie reading on warm afternoons while enjoying a hemp latte across the street at the Magic Pot Eatery (The magic pot is making you healthier says the chalkboard).
Back home in Launceston, a new street library has just appeared in Civic Square and its books range from travel, to learning how to plant geraniums, to the Oxford Guide to Classical Literature, to Michael Palin’s debut novel (Hemingway’s Chair). Travel books seem to be ubiquitous with street libraries – everyone likes to escape and read about somewhere else. There are now three street libraries in Launceston, the new ones in the Quadrant and Brisbane Street Malls. I look forward to discovering their contents.
At Weymouth, in northern Tasmania, there is a homemade street library made out of an old freezer that stands proudly outside Weymouth’s town hall. Books here are perfect for shack reading: a book by Dame Edna Everage (My Gorgeous Life), a mystery by Agatha Christie (Death Comes as the End), and John Grisham (The Client).
From Woodbridge to Weymouth people are out reading and exchanging free books and enriching their island reading lists – how good is this?
In the middle of the state at Tunbridge, in another little A-framed shed (housed out of the weather in what looks like a bus shelter), I saw books on a range of authors from Dan Brown to Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie, showing that even landlocked farmers love to read mysteries, crime stories and thrillers.
There was a black book entitled Library of Souls in the street library, which I was curious about, but I didn’t have a book to exchange it with … so, next time.
Street libraries are popping up all over Tasmania and the books inside them give a flavour to their location and reading audience. There are currently 46 registered street libraries in Tasmania and an uncounted number of unofficial ones that have popped up by local groups, schools, shops or individuals. Go to https://streetlibrary.org.au and you will find the nearest one near you – from the map on the screen I can see them stretching from Strahan to Swansea, from Boat Harbour to Geeveston.
I’m in search of other street libraries around the state, especially the unregistered ones that are housed in places like surfboards or old phone boxes. I love the structures people have constructed. I love finding them by chance and discovering what kind of books they offer to local readers.
What are Tasmanians reading today? I think we are an island of readers and our breadth and depth is wide and high. I think we read more than social media would let on. I think we are a quiet group of revolutionaries, secretly reading in our hammocks in summer or reading by candlelight in winter, tucked up in our doonas, secretly enjoying our island peace and pace of life to be able to luxuriate with one of life’s great gifts, a good book.
Do you have a favourite street library you have found in Tasmania? The more remote, the more local, the more home grown and Jerry-built the better. Send a photo and a list of a few of its books in to Forty South Tasmania and I’ll compile the photos and booklists into an article and we shall see what more we can tell about our island by the books we read.
Don Defenderfer is a native of San Francisco who once went on a holiday to Alaska where he met an Australian who told him to visit Tasmania. So he did, and while here he met a woman. That was 30 years ago. He was state coordinator for Landcare Tasmania for many years, a job that allowed him to be inspired by not only the beauty of the Tasmanian landscape but by the many people that are trying to repair and renew it. He has a Masters Degree in Social Ecology and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies with a minor in writing. He has published three volumes of poetry, and his work has appeared in newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times and The Australian.
