Thanks, as always, to Eleanor and Skai for posting about their recent library borrowing/reading!
All of the books that I asked to be added to stock seemed to arrive at once. By the time I picked them up, four already had at least one further reservation on them, which was pleasing as it shows it these weren’t selfish requests; the books are of interest to others, too. Although a 2026 goal of mine was to read more from my own shelves, I’m having to balance that with big stacks of library books – which I’m glad I didn’t have to buy. A few will count towards #ReadIndies if I manage to finish them before the end of the month.
I mentioned last month that loans are down in my library system. I’ve noticed a couple of new initiatives that must be intended to boost borrowing: a “Love at First Line” Valentine’s Day display, and ‘blind date with a book’-style bundles distributed around the shelves.
One unfortunate necessity to keep stock turning over is weeding. I recently noticed that a couple of books I’d long meant to read were culled from the collection before I was able to borrow them: A Widow’s Story by Joyce Carol Oates and The Cold Millions by Jess Walter.
The majority of the library’s withdrawn books are sold. The latest book sale started mid-month and I was among the first through the door on that Saturday morning to have a rummage. I came away with one mostly pristine paperback (probably a rejected donation) and a signed ex-library hardback of an Andrew Miller novel for a grand total of 80 pence.
I’ve had to do some weeding myself recently, of the theology library I run at my church. We’re pushing 500 items, and given the limited space on the shelves in the lobby, I often find I’m having to wedge books in or lay them across the top. I’ve culled 24 items over the years: duplicates, books in poor condition, and a couple I labelled as irrelevant (a Barbara Pym novel set among clergy types and a book of Coronavirus prayers I’ll keep for posterity).
I do much more frequent culling at the neighbourhood Little Free Library I curate. Turnover is low in the winter (and I put fewer books in there than usual anyway, to try to cut down on condensation), so the same stuff often hangs around for many weeks. I immediately remove anything tatty or with a spine so faded the title is unreadable, and I try to keep only one book per author (series are frequent donations but take up too much space and don’t shift). Every so often I do a complete changeover of the stock and take the rejects to a charity warehouse or have them picked up for charity – the same strategy as with the withdrawn theology books.
Appropriately, I found this next one among the Little Free Library donations: a sweet picture book based on the true story of how the young people of Daraya amassed a 15,000-volume basement library of rescued books during the first four years of the Syrian civil war. The author grew up during the Lebanese civil war and the illustrator in communist Romania, so they, too, know how books can give comfort and courage during the hardest times. “Their secret library had become a safe port in a sea of war. The hope it brought carried them from the darkness of destruction into a bright new dawn.” Lovely.
You’ll see from the Rough Guide and phrase book that we’re pondering a trip to Portugal in April. It’s feeling last minute now; we hope to book our travel and accommodation soon.
My library use over the last month:
READ
- Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen
- The Honesty Box by Lucy Brazier
- Badger Books by Paddy Donnelly
- Mildred the Gallery Cat by Jono Ganz
- Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
- Green by Louise Greig
- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
- Footpath Flowers by JonArno Lawson
- An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel
- The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
- Bog Queen by Anna North
- Winter Trees by Sylvia Plath
- Let the Bad Times Roll by Alice Slater
- Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
With a cheeky Oxfam book haul (Hartnett and Wood) on the top.
CURRENTLY READING
- The Parallel Path: Love, Grit and Walking the North by Jenn Ashworth
- The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg (a reread)
- Strangers: The Story of a Marriage by Belle Burden
- Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour by Mark Haddon
- Carrie by Stephen King
- Of Thorn & Briar: A Year with the West Country Hedgelayer by Paul Lamb
- Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
- The Spirituality Gap by Abi Millar
- People Like Us by Jason Mott
- Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- Eva Luna by Isabel Allende (for April book club)
- Pathfinding: On Walking, Motherhood and Freedom by Kerri Andrews
- Like Mother by Jenny Diski
- Bog Child by Siobhan Dodd
- The Swell by Kat Gordon
- Skylark by Paula McLain
- Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
- Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
- The Original by Nell Stevens
- Women Talking by Miriam Toews
- The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
ON HOLD, TO BE COLLECTED
- The Brain at Rest: Why Doing Nothing Can Change Your Life by Joseph Jebelli
- Seven by Joanna Kavenna
- Our Better Natures by Sophie Ward
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
- A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello
- The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
- Honour & Other People’s Children by Helen Garner
- Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Frostlines: An Epic Exploration of the Transforming Arctic by Neil Shea
- First Class Murder by Robin Stevens
RETURNED UNFINISHED
- Redwall by Brian Jacques – I read 60 pages before this was requested off me, and I decided it was probably for the best to leave this series to my childhood.
- A Long Game: How to Write Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken – I was about halfway through when this was requested off me, but I have it from Edelweiss so can finish it on my Kindle.
RETURNED UNREAD
- Zami by Audre Lorde – I have it on my Kindle so will return this for another member of my book club (the women’s classics subgroup) to borrow as our May read.
What have you been reading or reviewing from the library recently?
Share a link to your own post in the comments. Feel free to use the above image. The hashtag is #LoveYourLibrary.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’m sorry to hear that library loans are down, particularly in winter. I wonder why. Is it a trend or just this season?
Looking forward to the new Costello although I was less keen on her last one. Academy Street is still my favourite.
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I’m not sure why! Hopefully it’s just a blip.
I’ve enjoyed all of Costello’s books, but I found some of the stories in Barcelona unsubtle.
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Our library loans are doing ok, statistically. And our library is third best in the whole county. Not bad, considering the top two are very much bigger towns. Reservations are a pain. You wait for weeks, then 10 come at once! Which will be why I’m having to return two unread today …
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Isn’t that always the way? Luckily, my library holds books on the reservation shelf for two weeks and gives you three weeks with them, so usually I can manage.
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Ours are held for three and borrowed for three. But I have had silly numbers drop onto my shelf at once from time to time.
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Here’s mine! https://ellethinks.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/loveyourlibrary-february-2026/
Lovely to hear about the curation of your Little Free Library – I just discovered one near me, but it doesn’t seem to be as well looked after as yours. Very keen to hear what you make of your next Stephen King, and also of Alice Slater’s book, which I found irresistible (though still haven’t read her first, Death of a Bookseller).
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I’m enjoying Carrie but not finding it as addictive as my two previous of King’s novels.
The Slater, hmm. I haven’t quite made up my mind about it. My brother-in-law is from New Orleans (where I’ve never been), so I enjoyed reading about the food and the landscape, but (I pre-empted myself when I scheduled this post and haven’t actually read the last 35 pages yet) I’m wondering what the point is. Since you loved this one, definitely read her first as well.
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I’ll only say that the ending of the Slater does change much of what came before…
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I finished it this evening. A pretty good unreliable narrator scenario, but mysteries just don’t do much for me!
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I’m reading our latest book group pick from the library at the moment – The Yield by Tara June Winch – and have Wellness by Nathan Hill checked out.
I’ve never seen such a beautifully curated Little Free Library!
Glad you liked Bog Queen. I have The Girls Who Grew Big on my Kindle, but expectations are tempered.
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I remember hearing about the Winch when it was up for/won some big-name Australian awards. Was it difficult to get hold of?
I adored Wellness. Hope you get on well with it.
Thanks! My neighbours built and painted the box using community funding from the council. You can’t see it in the photo, but it has a wood and Perspex door and above the box is a hand-carved sign. Whenever I’m not on holiday, I stop by daily to tidy the shelves and remove any overflow. Apart from keeping children’s materials on the lowest shelf, there’s no strict organisation policy (though you can see that, when it’s up to me, I keep adult fiction on the top shelf, smallest to largest, with hardbacks at right and a sideways stack of miscellaneous little books at left; and a mix of adult nonfiction and genre fiction on the middle shelf). I try to maintain a good variety and preferably not lots by the same authors — series are my nemesis!
I loved Mottley’s debut novel but this one was a little bit hokey. Something about the romanticization of teen single motherhood and the mixture of AAVE/Southern slang and attempted lyricism didn’t sit well with me.
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Oh dear – I had mixed feelings about Mottley’s debut but thought this one sounded more original!
No issue with the Winch, North Tyneside libraries had a copy in their system – they’re weirdly better stocked than Tyne and Wear.
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“Love at First Line!” I love that idea; I should do one for Instagram. Winter is a slow time at my library too, which I think is funny because the city where I live, the population swells during the winter when retirees come to town for the nice winter weather. Things begin to pick up again in March.
Here is my post on my February library reading. I got it done early, at 6AM my time. https://inspirationalskai.blogspot.com/2026/02/love-your-library-february-2026-january.html
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Thanks for your post! I hope it is just a dip over the winter and that loans will pick up soon. The summer reading challenge is probably the next big spur to borrowing.
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Summer reading challenges make a difference in library usage. At all of the libraries I’ve worked at, usage goes up during the summer reading challenge.
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I’m deep into World War one, at the moment, with Fiona McIntosh’s ‘Nightingale’. Fiona writes a compelling story. Have you read any of her many historical fiction books, Rebecca?
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Hi Jill, thanks for your comment! I’ve not come across Fiona McIntosh before.
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This gives me a pang, as I’ve been told my borrowing habits are notable in my local branch (normal readers seem to borrow a quantity that can be carried in their hands, not two bags, on each visit) and now I wonder if someone is bemoaning the local numbers here too. While not going while the sidewalks are icy has become a months-long reality. Nonetheless, I have been really enjoying the books on my own shelves, and also enjoying the separate lists I’m keeping now, for After the Melt. I really do miss browsing, but when we rented a car last, was able to go to the second-hand shop twice (if I’d gone to the library, I wouldn’t have had a way to return loans when they came due). I love hearing about how you’re tending the various collections; it’s a lot of decision-making and I think it’s quite interesting, the factors that must be weighed.
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I’m sure they miss you when you’re not coming regularly!
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