“I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.” —Kahlil Gibran

Raise your hand if you could use a shot of joy right about now. Both of mine are high in the air. I'm not prone to grouchiness or fits of melancholy, but I gotta say they've been hangin around with alarming frequency as of late. The woe-is-me blues are drownin out the Christmas tunes that usually fill my ears as soon as the clock strikes November. And that, my friends, just will not do. So when I saw a sign posted on Facebook encouraging us all to "turn off the news and love [our] neighbor," it was like someone reached through the screen and gave me a good shake. Time to snap out of it, get over my tired self, and start serving my neighbors (as in everyone).

Enter that trusty intern of ours with stories of book-giving sure to inspire even the grouchiest among us, meaning me. What better way to spread love and cheer than with free books? (That's a rhetorical question, in case you're new here.) Emma Watson, a.k.a. the book fairy, has been busy delivering up delight underground in New York and London by hiding copies of Maya Angelou's Mom & Me & Mom for lucky subway riders. Good on you, Emma. The giving doesn't stop there though, our favorite Free Little Libraries friends just planted their 50,000th little library. Even more impressive? That's double the libraries that were in existence a mere year and a half ago. Just thinking about all those books finding their way into the hands and hearts of readers makes my weary heart skip a beat. 

This all has me wanting to find ways to spread more literary joy. Stay tuned for our Weekly Wrap-Up this Saturday for some fun ideas on sharing the book love. I feel better already, don't you?

Posted by Rachel