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| Photograph by Andrew Beaujon.who reported this story |
I suppose it was always only a matter of time, and I doubt that this is the first time something like this has happened, but one Washington D.C. bookseller has been accused of raiding Little Free Libraries to help stock his own bookstore's shelves.
According to this Washingtonian.com article, Don Alexander may have been caught stripping Little Free Libraries in his Alexandria Virginia, neighborhood of sellable books and replacing them with books he cannot sell in his soon-to-be-opened D.C. storefront.
"...Hodgins says she’s seen Alexander go through her Little Free Library several times, piling books on the roof of the library and then replacing them with books she’s unlikely to have stocked, including a Sudoku book. She has put more than $400 into building and maintaining her Little Free Library, which she fills with books from her book club as well as some by authors from her native Canada, that she’s purchased at full price with the expectation that they’ll be taken for noncommercial purposes."
Alexander denies that he has done anything wrong, even to mentioning that he has a Little Free Library in front of his own home. I may be a cynic, but his vehement defense, including his personal Little Free Library, just does not ring true to me. It defies common sense; what better way to acquire books for resale in your own shop could there ever be than a little baited trap at your own front door?
"It’s not illegal to sell books from a Little Free Library, though anyone doing so would defy the spirit of the program, which it describes on its website as “fostering neighborhood book exchanges.” In its FAQs, the organization encourages people who believe someone is taking books from their Little Free Library with the intention of selling them them to stamp books or mark their spines with a Sharpie to make them less salable. On its website, it shares the story of a Little Free Library “steward” in the Chicago area who successfully got the police involved with someone who was clearing out his box."
You decide. Go to the Washingtonian link up above for more details, including Alexander's snottily aggressive first response when challenged about what he was doing. Personally, I'm betting that all that vigorous protesting of the anti-social charge against him is a whole lot of hot air.
The bigger question, though, is how big a problem this is around the country? As the article points out, this practice is not currently illegal; but it sure as heck is unethical.
You'd think his conscience would tell him that this practise is dubious at best but it seems an awful of people don't have one those these days. I did suspect these little libraries could be open to abuse but this is the first time I've heard of it actually happening.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that lots of people are abusing the little boxes because there are always people out there looking to get something for free, especially if they can make some easy money by taking advantage of someone so easily.
DeleteStuff like this really irks me when people take advantage of the good will and spirit of sharing. It makes sense that some might stoop to this level since library book sales etc have stopped during the pandemic and, that is where book sellers got many of their stock. I'd go to sales for pleasure and they would be there with their ISBN scanners to check a price value.
ReplyDeleteI've been run over at library sales by people with scanners, too. I'm not sure what's going on, though, because I have always been under the impression that unless a book is extremely rare, ex-library copies don't really have much of a resale value. I do suppose pristine copies would make a difference, but otherwise?
DeleteThat is sad to hear, though I am not surprised it's happened. I myself really miss the library sales and visiting the Book Thing in Baltimore, which I used to do once a year... They have all their free books stamped "NOT FOR RESALE THIS IS A FREE BOOK" but even that might not deter a lot of sellers.
ReplyDeleteDoing something like that was one of the suggestions in the article, but I would hate to see the books defaced that way, myself. I really need to get out and take a look at the four or five that are within 5 miles of me...still haven't remembered to do that.
DeleteI don't think anyone is raiding the Little Free Library that's nearest my house. The books change out, but not very fast, and the books that switch out are always replaced with good reads. But I think it's sad that there are so many crap people in the world.
ReplyDeleteI really hope this is less common than my cynical heart tells me it is, Lark.
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