Read All About It

We very very rarely buy a newspaper but always have loads of them to read.  How?  Well, my partner commutes into the City each weekday and picks up some of the papers other commuters have already read and have left on the train.  This was yesterday's haul.

As you can see we go from high brow to, ahem, 'popular' ,with the free Lite evening paper for good measure.  I also pick up a free Essex paper each Thursday which gives us the TV listings for the week and we have two other free local papers delivered to the door each week as well. 

I really like the idea of leaving something you have read for other's to enjoy. Nobody polices this practice, it just seems to have organically grown all by itself, and I for one am really delighted by this.  It's a pity we can't extend it to other things - for instance magazines.  It would be great if there was somewhere in a local library where you could leave recent magazines you have already read and could then swap them for another which someone else has read but you haven't. 

I remember many years ago when I was in California they had a wonderful system in supermarkets where people would leave coupons they didn't need in a box near the door and could then help themselves to any coupons that were relevant to them.

But why stop at paper goods.  I've read that in some towns in America they have a couple of days a year where householders put out large items they no longer need (furniture, shelving that sort of thing) on the pavement and it is free for the taking by anyone who can make use of it. That seems a really good idea to me as it means these large items no longer end up in landfill, people get to pick up things they need for free, plus the householder can rid themselves of any large items quickly and easily - without having to pay the council to take it away.

I know Freecycle does a similar sort of thing via the net, and even though I live in a small town we have a Freecycle page all to ourselves - which is excellent.  Sadly, I've always been just too late to nab any of the bargains on offer in my area, and I'm not really into second-hand exercise bikes or war novels, which always seem to be available!!

Comments

[Selena]

I wonder if you could make a suggestion to your library. Our Friends of the Library group which has monthly booksales, receives heaps of magazines from people. They then sell them for .25 cents each to the public with a little lock box to drop in quarters. Do you think your library might be interested in something like this? I love getting used magazines. I especially love finding a current month magazine at a fraction of the price. Your right on Freecycle, you have to have speedy fingers to get anything.