City Desk

I Heart Free Books

I like the urban tradition of leaving books on the curb for strangers to carry off. To one like me who has built his library from cast-offs, secondhand stores, and less honorable means, there are few better surprises than finding abandoned stacks and a sign that reads, “Free Books.”

That’s just what I found this morning on Calvert Street NW. The collection was mostly political history and biography with a socialist bent, and bits of literature mixed in. I snatched most of the latter: Dostoevsky, Kundera, Woolf, Nietzsche, Plato, Solzhenitsyn, Nick Hornby.

Try to call me selfish; I call myself struggling. At $7.50 an hour, I can’t pay full price at Kramerbooks, Olsson’s, or even most of the secondhand stores, which usually overvalue their stock (Letters To a Young Poet was $6 for one battered edition. That’s an 80-page book.). And given that whoever owned this collection was strong on worker’s rights, I assume that person will not mind my taking my fill. The books may still be out there. They’re on the north side of Calvert just east of the Ellington Bridge.

11 Responses to “I Heart Free Books”

  1. Mark Athitakis Says:

    “Dostoevsky, Kundera, Woolf, Nietzsche, Plato, Solzhenitsyn, Nick Hornby”

    This reminds me those scenes in “Star Trek” episodes where a character rattles off a list of geniuses, topped off by a made-up guy. (”Beethoven! Mozart! Brumblemeyer!” “Shakespeare! Faulkner! Spaetzlehoeuwer!”) Hornby isn’t made up, but he’s not exactly in the same league as those others.

  2. JW Says:

    I’m waiting for a Trekkie to pipe in with this kind of response:

    “I have written well-research biographies for every fictional genius ever mentioned on ‘Star Trek.’ Your references to David Brumblemeyer and Ardath Spaetzlehoeuwer are equally as incongruous as the inclusion of Hornby on that list of authors. Everybody knows that Brumblemeyer was not a musical composer — he was a meta-quantum theorist (although he did dabble in quasitonal cosmology). And Spaetzlehoeuwer was not an author — he helped to develop the rare-earth psychotropic lenses that were used in early whole
    -room holography projections.”

  3. andrew Says:

    maybe relevant — more free books for trade (it’s a points system) in DC and elsewhere: http://www.bookmooch.com

  4. Jonathan York Says:

    You will notel, Mark, that I used Nick Hornby’s first and last name, while I referred to the others by last name only. Some of them are great; Hornby is trendy. (Also, I picked him up for a friend. I’m not gonna read “About a Boy.”)

  5. Wilson Says:

    I find it interesting that Mark snarks on Nick Hornby books while he has only recently bemoaned the inability of Jonathan Lethem to translate a love of rock and roll into decent literature (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/index.php/2007/03/02/kill-the-rock-novel-please/), a form Hornby has mastered. While high literature inspired by and evocative of rock music can be brilliant (see Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and T.C. Boyle “Greasy Lake,” for starters), high literature about rock musicians and their fans tends to suck (see the aforementioned Lethem book as well Rick Moody’s own bad rock novel Garden State, no relation to the bad rock movie of the same name). Hornby actually succeeds because he sees the limits of writing about rock music, basically post-teenage angst and wishy-washy nostalgia. You snobs should pick up About a Boy next time you have had a bit too much to drink and aren’t feeling up to the usual Pynchon or Plato. It’s the best literary reaction to Kurt Cobain’s death that I’ve ever read—not that it has much competition. On a related note, Lethem’s recent story in the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2007/03/19/070319fi_fiction_lethem_, which concerns film nerds on the Upper East side as opposed to rock nerds in L.A., is fantastic.

  6. Washington City Paper: News & Features: Blogs Says:

    [...] don’t have much money, and I don’t know how to cook. But during the month that I slept on friends’ couches in [...]

  7. emleaman Says:

    i also heard about some free book exchange thing in baltimore. my friend told me about it. i think it happens on weekends…bring a book, take a book. don’t remember what it is called…anyone know?

  8. Washington City Paper: News & Features: Blogs Says:

    [...] Free books! Right this minute on Calvert Street! Get there before Jonathan York gets there first! [...]

  9. Boy Says:

    About A Boy - new movie on http://www.dvdipodmovies.com

  10. Washington City Paper: News & Features: Blogs Says:

    [...] and some books. And probably some other miscellaneous things. (Hey, who doesn’t like free stuff?) I appreciate the generosity, but I’m not sure how I can use unattached desk drawers [...]

  11. Washington City Paper: News & Features: Blogs Says:

    [...] I like books as much as anyone else, and I love [...]

Leave a Reply

Music 2008 Year In Review
advertisement
DC SEARCH
calendar
restaurants
movies
classified
personals

Find an Event

Select the type of event, and the particular day this week below.

Submit your event to the City Paper's Event Calendar.

Find a Restaurant

Enter a restaurant name, or select a cuisine and neighborhood below.

Find a Movie

Select a movie theater in the box below to see a list of all movies at that theater.

...Or view a full list of theaters, films, and showtimes.

Search Classified Ads

Post a Classified Ad

Find It

Find a Match

Age range: to
Find It

Who saw you? Check I Saw You
Looking for something kinky? Wild Side

City Paper Newsletter
CarTango

Get a Car

Search inventory on the City Paper's CarTango website:

CP Events

Find yours

This Week

Current Issue
The Issue of Jan. 8 - 14, 2009

This Week in
City Paper History

  • Secret Santa
    Pentagon City’s St. Nick has got a real beard, a big heart, and a hush order.
    Dec. 20 - 26, 2007
  • The Tale of the Take
    I fell hard for the albums on this list. All of which I stole.
    Dec. 20 - 26, 2007
advertisement
advertisement