SEQUIM –– As his family grows a wide range of crops on its Big Barn Farm, 12-year-old Tane Ridle is growing a little library in a matching little barn he built.
While the farm’s big red barn is filled with farm implements behind its big wooden doors, the little glass door of Ridle’s mini-barn holds everything from wild horses to hobbits.
“We wanted to make a great place to stop and pick up a story,” Ridle said.
His little red barn at 702 Kitchen-Dick Road is the first Little Free Library in Sequim.
The box, built by Tane and his uncle, Jason, and stocked with the help of his aunt, Erin, allows for anyone who wants to stop and pick up a book for free.
Take or share
“You don’t even have to bring it back,” he said, “although it would be nice if people put some more books inside.”
Other rules of traditional libraries also are not followed.
Tane said there is no shushing of loud library users.
He has also abandoned the Dewey Decimal System, with instructional books sandwiched in between picture books of animals and young adult novels.
“It’s mostly adult books right now, but I’d like to add some children’s stuff,” he said.
It is also not yet equipped to hook up to e-readers.
Over the summer, Tane and Jason grabbed scrap wood from the big barn, sawed it into shape, painted it red and nailed everything together.
“I wish I could have participated in the spray painting a bit more,” Tane said with a smile. “But I had a lot of fun nailing it together.”
They tacked on a glass door found at a garage sale, and Tane and Erin pulled books from the family’s basement to put inside.
They also added to the stock through the online book swapping site www.BookMooch.com.
A lot of fun
An avid reader, Tane said he was enthusiastic about the idea when his aunt pitched it to him.
“I love to read, so when she told me about it, I thought it would be a lot of fun,” he said.
Others who have stopped at the roadside bookstop also find delight in its free pages, according to comments written on a spiral-bound notepad left inside the library.
“Thanks for the book — I’m going to read Biscuit to Wessy. Will bring it back!” one commenter wrote with a smiley face.
“I [heart] these books. thanks,” wrote another.
Over the holiday break, a fan also dropped off a pair of James Patterson novels that Tane placed alongside his J.R.R. Tolkien section.
Others on the Peninsula
Ridle’s Little Free Library is the fourth on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Others are posted in front of the home of Bruce and Theresa Rothweiler at 119 W. Ninth St. in Port Angeles, at Sonja Schoenleber’s home at 1023 Tyler St. in Port Townsend and in Darlene Durfee’s front yard at 31 E. Maude St. in Port Hadlock.
More than 10,000 Little Free Libraries are posted throughout the world.
The idea was started in Hudson, Wis., by Todd Bol in 2009.
Ridle’s library is Little Free Library of Distinction No. 7,173 and is posted on the organization’s map with others on www.littlefreelibrary.org.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
