A Wonderous Gift to Libraries

Now that my son and I are doing NaNoWriMo, we've got books on the brain.  But even without that focus this month, we've always loved books and reading.  We've also always loved libraries, and are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of one, and are involved in classes and programs at some other ones on a regular basis.  So that means we're visiting one library or another about every other day or so.

We've always tried to support our local library, not only by our presence and our expressions of gratitude to the staff, but by giving them cards and treats on holidays or occasions like National Library Week.  But I found one library supporter who has put our puny attempts to thank our librarians to shame!

For the past eight months, someone has been creating some incredible paper sculptures out of books and secretly leaving them in various libraries around Edinburgh, Scotland.   Along with the gorgeous art work, the perpetrator is leaving a small tag in support of the importance of libraries.

Your imagination is probably not doing these sculptures justice.  So I will post one of my favorite ones, just to show you how fantastic these things are:

photo from The Scotsman

(yes, the dragon is made out of paper from a book)

The tag in the shell on the lower left reads:

For @scotstorycenter - A gift in support of libraries, books, works, ideas..... Once upon a time there was a book and in the book was a nest and in the nest was an egg and in the egg was a dragon and in the dragon was a story.....

To read the entire saga and see all the contributions to date, visit this blogsite.

I think this is just such a beautiful project, so I wanted people to know about it and to appreciate the incredible artwork of this mysterious benefactor of libraries.  Especially at a time when things seem so challenging, sometimes art, especially when wrapped up in a whimsical mystery, can lift our spirits better than anything.  But it also gives me an idea about doing something like that for our own libraries, albeit on a MUCH smaller scale.  We may not be able to create art like that, but the holiday season is coming up.... perhaps we can hide notes of gratitude in honor of Thanksgiving?  Or be secret Santas for our librarians?  Or what if we hid notes of love for libraries in advance of Valentines Day?

Hmmm....I'll have to give that some more thought....once I get my daily 1,667 words done for NaNoWriMo!