There is a bloke, in the Philippines, who lost his parents, as people are wont to do at that end of life, unfortunately. And so he sat and he thought about how he could honour their memory.
THIS is what he came up with. He took his books, in his library poor neighbourhood, and he put them on the street. Just to see if people wanted to borrow them. And they did. And they brought them back, although there is no rule that you need to do that, and they brought back more with them. Now he has no idea how many books he has, the turnover is so high. But there are at least 2-3000 sitting there on bookshelves outside his front door.
And he has inspired others to do the same. One woman is going to start a "book-boat" and travel around the small islands in the south. Someone else has set up one in the north.
This is what Hernando Guanlao has to say about his "book club"
"You don't do justice to these books if you put them in a cabinet or a box," he says.
"A book should be used and reused. It has life, it has a message. As a book caretaker, you become a full man."
How nice is that?
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