Before the Age of Kindle, it was cruising sailors who brought the treasure of the written word to the most remote corners of the worlds. You see, sailors have a lot of time - while on the ocean during a passage or while at anchor, waiting for the weather to clear to start the next leg of their journey. And once you get to know some, you might notice that many have a keen intellect, no matter how they dress or keep their hair. No wonder that in previous decades, boats were weighed down with a substantial inventory of literature. But even the most complete onboard library will be consumed after a few years of cruising the planet's oceans. Therefore, a sub-culture developed among the cruisers where well-read books were brought to shore and exchanged for others.
Bar owners quickly understood the need for a more organized method and offered free bookshelves and self-service book shopping: come in for a beer (the libation must be paid for), bring a book, leave it in the shelve and pick another one. Some of the bar operators were book-lovers themselves, and they started organizing the selection, either by going alphabetic according to title or author. The next complication is sorting the inventory to language.
Today, even remote islands with a tiny population, but a decent anchorage, have somewhere in the backroom of a sailor's hang-out a fascinating library, offering books ranging from novels to non-fiction; essentially anything an information-hungry soul could desire. There is a particular draw to these libraries; here, the reader will come across books and topics she or he had never considered exploring; but in this environment, titles jump out as possible diversions from the usual interests. And because the books are free to take, there is not much risk attached to trying something new. (This is how I ended up reading a book about the North Atlantic fishing industries and learned way more than I ever wanted to know about the number of days a deceased and unfrozen fish is still considered 'fresh' and sold in top restaurants as such - it's fourteen days FYI.)
Of course, hotels and resorts also offer books left by their guests for others to read. And this is wonderful and needs to be used. But there is a step-up in quality and depth with the sailor's book exchanges because these people are not on a one or two-week vacation and are happy to enjoy an entertaining beach read. They can afford to dwell deeper into subjects, and there is a tendency to find more substantial works in a yachting community book exchange than at vacation resorts.
The local Rotary Club introduced a new concept; in the center of Marigot and close to the waterfront, there is now a tiny public book-exchange, called the Little Free Library. It is nothing more than a well-stocked locker. Books available now are in French and English. We find this installation a fantastic idea and would love to see more around the island. Well done, Rotary Club!
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