1 anachronism + 1 near-anachronism = happy readers

The people who live in Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset, England, have loaded an empty British Telecom phone booth with 100 books. No longer in use for making telephone calls (see first part in above equation), the iconic red booth was bound either for the public rubbish heap or an auctioneer’s block. Instead, this BT booth has been brought back into use as a continuously available community lending library (see second part in above equation).

The solution? A saving grace.

When I think of all the objects emblematic of Great Britain, BT’s red telephone phone booth pretty much tops the list. Now that mobile phones have made public telephones obsolete, these wonderful booths stand empty or have been removed from the street scape.  Digital publishing and electronic reading devices will surely obviate the need for community lending libraries in a more traditional form (buildings). But this doesn’t mean that people don’t still want to read and borrow and swap and share books.

When people feel they’ve lost something important they’re often moved to ingeniously simple solutions. When they do what these villagers have done, and the story is picked up by the BBC, then villages all across the UK can follow suit. With a purchase price of one pound sterling, there’s no telling what other creative uses will be found for these booths. My vote goes to the book-lovers.