We don't have one anywhere nearby but I have loved the idea ever since discovering it years ago. I tried to put one on our town walking trail but the idea wasn't very well received and they never okayed it.

There is one in an old 'red' phone box in a neighbouring village.

We have several here in the city of Charleston. One is just a short walk from my building. I have found amazing tomes there, one a book of translated ancient Greek poetry. It seems very well maintained.

We had a lovely one in our old neighborhood and I used it frequently, both taking and donating books. I miss having one close by our new home.

My closest one is in the local shopping mall. It has a grouping of adult and children's chairs too! It is run by the local Public Library.

Some years ago, one got set up not far from where I work. I would walk past it every day on my way to work and I thought it was neat, but after about 2 weeks all the books had been taken and then some miserable ****** set it on fire. That was the end of that.

PAM I was just looking for a picture of our nearby phone box cum library and came across this video which I thought quite clever . . . the phone box in our village is now home to a defibrillator . .. so far unused.

A New Use for an Old Phone Box

The only one I know of in my city is in a really good coffee shop. I have looked at the books but have not used it.

This morning I went to the opening of a new regional library that is less than ten minutes from me (by car, of course. No place here in suburbia close enough to walk to.) It is a big facility and was jammed with people checking it out. There were a lot of young mothers with little children, and there were a lot of children's books on display. I think it will be a big success. Lots of seven-day books, too.

Yes, we have several nearby, including one on my street. I always check it and recently picked up a copy of Night Circus. I often add books I know I won’t be reading again. There are a lot of children’s books in it

There was one installed on a neighbor's front yard and it was there less than a week before someone stole the entire thing. It was built like a little house and was adorable.

Yoyobon, that’s horrible. What earthly purpose could they have for it, except to start their own library. Somehow thief and library don’t go together.

I LOVE IT ! It's a dream :0)

Dedtired, I hope that your LFL has a long and useful life with many returning friends! I do admit that after reading some of the comments - Netla's and Yoyobons, I am now a bit more hesitant to move forward with having one in my yard! We always like to think the best of people, and I guess I expect readers to have a bit more courtesy than the rest of humanity (although I've no reason why I have this expectation), and it saddens me that a LFL could become a target. Reading is so often a solitary hobby that LFL offer such an opportunity to meet other readers, even if their reading tastes differ.

I do love the idea that annpan wrote about - a LFL with a few chairs. I have a lovely old tree on the side of my house... wouldn't it be interesting to place a few chairs there and a little sign "Reading Corner, all readers welcome" and see what happens? I do live in a small town suburban neighborhood and can imagine that it may be a novelty for a while and then interest dying down... but it may be a fun experiment.

PAM

Vee, The video you shared finally loaded (we shall not discuss how old my computer might be.. let's just knock wood that it keeps on going!). And Vee! I LOVED it! Such community effort and love! It was amazing! Truly, I wanted to be a part of that community! Thank you so very much for sharing.

I hope no one needs the defib any time soon. Surely there must be room in there for a few books as well?

PAM

Thank you PAM. Maybe a book would be useful after the ambulance has been called . . . along with a stiff drink.

OT but on the question of defibrillators. When the old phone box here had its make-over I went to a 'talk' about the correct use of the equipment; just in case.

It seems once inside the phone box and before one can even access the defib' a mobile/cell phone must be used to ring a number which then allows a code to be used to open the box-of-tricks. Once opened there are printed instructions on what to do, packs of sterile gloves etc and even a razor in case (as the instructor told us) the patient is a hairy-chested low-land gorilla. The one important point I did pick up was on no account should the 'pads' be used if the heart is still beating.

I must say I left the meeting feeling even-less equipped to deal with such an emergency than I had been before. I just pray that should I see someone in the street suffering cardiac arrest there are other people around to offer help.

Are these 'machines' available throughout the US?

Yes, they are, but not in phone booths to my knowledge. My husband went into cardiac arrest several times. He had an implanted defibrillator-pacemaker combination, and it kicked in a few times. He also had a bedside heart monitor that would notify the doctor immediately. If he were away from home when it happened, it knew as soon as he came into the house. Modern medicine has a bit of the miraculous about it. His cardiologist was wonderful, and DH lived 19 years after the device was inserted, although it did have to be changed out a couple of times which wasn't a big deal. Once scar tissue had built up around it causing a bulge on his chest, and once the battery was due to expire.

HI vee,

I work in a hospital and we all must be certified in the proper use of them. Yes, they are widely available and often called AEDs. They are actually quite simple to use and come with very easy-to-follow instructions. It boggles my mind to think that a life can be saved with literally the push of a button. Calling a cell phone to unlock it does bother me as all studies show that the first few (2-4) minutes are absolutely crucial. It seems like calling a cell phone number, then unlocking the AED with a code, eats up precious life-saving minutes.

PAM

Pam, I agree with you. And if like me there are a few remaining folk who don't even own a cell/mobile phone what happens then? Also there is the question of once someone has phoned to receive the code (which I presume is from a pre recorded message) it is necessary to remember the number . . . I'm sure my mind would become a total blank.

An eg of this, though not AED related. A friend was visiting a distant niece who was 'suffering' from a number of health/mental problems. Early one morning she was woken by the woman's two young sons. "We can't get Mummy to wake up and she pushed a pillow onto our faces during the night" Friend rushed to the woman to find her unconscious with an empty container of pills by the bed.

She told us later she had obviously tried to phone an ambulance and police, but that she couldn't get the phone to work and had to run round to a neighbour.

Later she said the phone appeared to be once again working. It seems that in her initial panic my friend pressed the wrong button on the phone . . . and this is by a usually very capable woman who has held down senior posts in education and the local community .

Unfortunately, although their mother recovered the boys were taken into 'care' as their father had already committed suicide and despite now being adults I don't think their lives have ever again been 'normal'.

Vee, some people tend to lose their heads in an emergency.

I was choking once and a whole table of sensible educated women just sat still and did nothing. I managed to ask the person sitting next to me to bang me on the back. She timidly patted me gently on my shoulder blade! I had to reach around and thump myself!

Afterwards one woman said that she wanted to give me "that Heimlich thing" but didn't know how to do it!

My daughter swallowed a penny when she was two. I grabbed her and doubled her over my arm and pounded her back. She spit it right up. i think I must have performed the "Heimlich thing" before I ever heard of it.

I did the Heimlich maneuver for a friend who was choking on popcorn and it worked. I froze for a moment, and everyone around me froze and shut down. I don't know why it is so scary to do, but it is. However, I managed to shake myself back to coherent thought, and I did it, and it worked. In fact, it is quite easy. I may freeze on other things, but I don't think I will freeze on that particular one again.