What Would Jane Read? Episode 15: LFL #12,893, Taylors, SC
What Would Jane Read?
...in Which Action Figure Jane Austen Explores
A Rather Remote LFL with a Lovely Doorknob
As you may recall from last time, Action Figure Jane Austen and I were attending a writers' conference in South Carolina and had carved out some time for visiting local Little Free Libraries. This one, LFL #12,893, was not easy to find. It was in the suburb of Taylors, a little north of Greenville, but the area felt much more rural than the surrounding communities. We steered the Prius along a narrow, bumpy road that was barely paved, and just when we thought we were about to hear Dueling Banjos, we came across the little book house on the side of the road, in front of a house with a nicely manicured lawn.
Jane found the country setting intriguing. It was nothing like the English version of a country house, but she still hasn't explored a lot of back roads in the U.S. and thought the excursion was quite an adventure.
This LFL was a relatively new one at the time, or so we assumed from the high number on the sign. In fact, it was the most recent numbered of any library Jane and I have visited so far. One of the most unusual things about it was the door. It is hinged across the bottom, in front, so the door opens by pulling out and down, the way many mailboxes do. But the thing Jane and I both liked best was the peridot-coloured crystal doorknob, a beautiful and distinctive touch.
(Jane insisted I spell colour in the British fashion.)
So what about the books? We wondered if an LFL in such a location might not get enough foot traffic to keep the books moving in and out. But this Little Free Library seemed well stocked the day we visited, so maybe there are enough neighbors making a point of stopping by. Of course, you can never have too many books, so although the box was not hurting for books, Jane insisted on adding a few more to the collection.
She perused the books there, too, and was interested in an Anne Tyler title, The Amateur Marriage, in which a young couple marry too quickly and, through many years of marriage, never seem to bridge the gap that separates them.
Action Figure Jane is not entirely sure she approves of Mrs. Tyler's subject matter. In Jane's fictional worlds, the gap that exists between men and women is best bridged before the marriage, after which she prefers for the couple to have put aside their differences and face their married life with a deeper understanding and an excellent chance for happiness. But she is willing to make allowances for a new country and a new century, though she so enjoys a happy ending. Still, she is convinced that reading modern fiction is an excellent way for her to gain an understanding of the world in which she now finds herself. In fact, she feels the characters' journey through the 1940s, '50s, and '60s will especially contribute to her education about the events of the many years since her own supposed demise, on the unlikely chance that anything of importance happened then.
PAST TRAVELS WITH JANE:
#14 Greenville, SC - #1368
#13 Baltimore, MD - #9459
#12 Baltimore, MD - #1521
#11 Kings Mountain, NC - #5009
#10 Spartanburg, SC - #12365
#9 Alexandria, VA - #10924
#8 Simpsonville, SC - #9761
#7 Alexandria, VA - not numbered
#6 Alexandria, VA - #4289
#5 Kannapolis, NC - #7277
#4 Newark, DE - #5837
#3 Arlington, VA - #10419
#2 Alexandria, VA - #5491
#1 Alexandria, VA (my own LFL) - #9136