Little Free Library opens south of Ridgefield

Ridgefield — It’s not always easy to connect with your neighbors when you live in the countryside. That’s one reason book lover Gayle Patterson, who lives on Northwest 196th Street, decided to erect one of those Little Free Libraries on her acreage. And she wanted it to be built in the shape of a London phone booth, in honor of her late daughter, who loved to travel. A cabinetmaker friend built it for Patterson, who has signed it up with the official Little Free Libraries organization, a nonprofit based in Wisconsin. (Take a look at http://littlefreelibrary.org, which says that there are going on 12,000 Little Free Libraries worldwide.) She’s filled it with Friends of the Library book sale bargains as well as donations from friends; she loves the way walkers and cyclists stop to check it out — and only wants to encourage them not to be too polite to take books away with them. That’s the whole idea, after all. “I may be small but I am filled with wonderful adventure books of all types,” says a statement inside Patterson’s library door.