Why go to the bookshelf when the bookshelf can come to you! (Or transport you to far away corners of a flat surface.)

The AsianCajuns send along this link, which demonstrates the odd versatility of a book wheel and ask…

How ’bout a circular walking bookshelf for our community version? Just imagine people taking a spin on one of those on the MARTA plaza while trying to avoid the stairs.

I can see the emails now.  “Hey DM.  Come get your dang book wheel off our patio!”  “Hey DM, thanks for making miss my kids soccer game.  Someone backed traffic all the way up to the Post Office because they couldn’t get back up Ponce to the Square in your silly book wheel!”

Finally, we’ve finally found a way to combine two of Decatur’s favorite things: books and transport!  Sure you could also just read a book on the train, but who the heck rides trains anymore?

OK, so I spoke with the city about putting up a “community bookcase” somewhere and they didn’t see any sort of obvious legal hurdles.  Obviously I will double-check with them once we come up a specific location, but for now it seems that we can move onto next steps.

As I can see, here are the next two hurdles to overcome: first, we need a location and second we need a bookcase that can withstand the conditions of our desired location if it is outdoors. (ie. does it need doors and be water-resistant?

So, who’s got a location and who has (or wants to construct) a water-proof bookcase?

Need inspiration?  Here’s a Facebook album with a couple other examples of German “public bookcases”, including the one to the right.

Could an American city embrace and support a “community bookcase”?

Apparently there are cities across Europe where bookshelves sit on sidewalks, jam-packed with novels and non-fiction, just waiting to enlighten those passing by.  Each one operates on an honor system.  You’re welcome to pick up a book or two at your leisure, just as long as you’re willing to replace it with a book of your own in the coming days.

Here in Amurica (misspelling intentional), we’ve taken to a different type of book exchange.  We’re all about the online book exchange variety, such as BookMooch.

Without the strong community oversight of many European cities – like this one in Germany – the idea of putting free books out on an American street seems absolutely ludicrous.  Erect a bookcase, stuffed with books out on a sidewalk and it’s easy to imagine that within hours all the good books would be gone (and not replaced) and the not so great ones would be defiled and strewn across the ground.  The bookcase itself would then be hauled off quicker than most residential curbside items.

Too bad.  Because ultimately, it’s sort of a huge waste of energy to ship a book across the country for a trade you could have made with a neighbor down the street.

So, back to my original question.  Could a city like Decatur, or any of it’s surrounding Georgia city brethren and sistren, EVER support something such as this?  Maybe with a few tweaks? Or will we forever be regulated to online, long-distance sharing, supported by a heavily subsidized mail system?

h/t: DCPLive