Wentworth Falls resident May Ziade was looking for a project to keep her busy in lockdown so she decided to sort through her books along with her 19-year-old daughter, Yasmine Ruby Youl.
That coronavirus chore has now turned into the area's latest street library after Ms Ziade set up the "Little Library" outside her 83 Henderson Road home on April 10. The library contains a range of books for children and adults as well as puzzles and DVDs.
"I am a big murder mystery fan and had doubles of quite a few Agatha Christie novels - they went quickly, so did my daughter's Roald Dahl and Geronimo Stilton books," she said.
"It's been really nice seeing walkers stop, especially those with a young child. A father with his child visited twice in one day - after finding a few books to take with them, they came back later to donate some others."
Ms Ziade said it's a nice way to safely engage with the community in the current climate.
"I love books, and like many others, have more time to read while we're housebound. I'm reading the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri at the moment. We also finished a 1000 piece Mona Lisa jigsaw, which we'll be putting out. If anyone has any jigsaws they've done and would like to pass on, please drop them by."
The Wentworth Falls resident keeps finding books to add to the library.
"I found I had two copies of The Name of the Rose so I put one out recently and also realised I had an extra copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, which seemed to fit in perfectly with the placement of our open-air 'Little Library'.
The library is open from 7am-6pm. It's always there, but covered after 6pm in case of rain.
Meanwhile at Pinerolo, the Children's Book Cottage at 116 Shipley Road, Blackheath, they have set up the "Little Free Library" of children's books.
"If parents are home schooling or looking for something for the kids to read, they are welcome to bring them to browse and borrow. This is our gift to the community during these terrible times," said Margaret Hamilton of Pinerolo.
