Books Help Us Endure
🥳 Our Winter Campaign is officially underway! Learn more and all the ways you can donate here. If you already donated to Street Books this season, thank you! We can only do this work with your support. ❤️
What are the stories that give us strength when times are hard?
The graphic above offers a window into how much our street librarians provide to those most in need in a given 12-month span–no barriers, no questions.
Street Books nurtures our city’s collective imagination by bringing stories and connection to the streets. We want to reimagine a society that respects dignity, justice, and our shared humanity. For our Winter Campaign this year we’re imagining alongside Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities: a book that questions what a city is, what it’s for.
Invisible Cities is structured according to eleven themes that capture the many faces of a city. This week we are thinking about the theme of “Cities and Desire” by asking our patrons what kinds of books and stories bring them strength and comfort when the going gets rough.
On a recent autumn afternoon, we spoke with library patrons at several of our weekly locations and asked about their favorite books, genres, authors, and why they read. We found a diverse range of reading interests–returns and check outs that day included everything from Alan Watts and Colson Whitehead to a page turning romance novel and multiple Star Trek sagas.
A brand new Street Books patron shared that author Janet Evanovich kept them going while they were incarcerated; “She’s kind of punk-ish. She just puts it out there, and it keeps you reading because you’re like ‘ooh what’s gonna happen next?’” Another visitor said they were up for anything–well, almost anything: “I’ll read anything except romance.” One stylish regular expressed an interest in books on astrology and numerology, and put in a request for a deck of tarot cards.
One thing that everyone could agree on was the benefit of reading. “I read about ten books a week,” said one patron, while another shared that “reading keeps me out of trouble,” by offering a welcome distraction from the most stressful aspects of living outside.
A particularly cheerful regular to our street library summed up the general consensus well, saying “I don’t care what kind of story, everybody has something to write about.”
What are the stories that lift you up when life gets you down? At Street Books we believe everyone deserves access to good books, meaningful connection, and basic resources that all humans need to thrive. The graphic above offers a window into how much our street librarians provide to those most in need in a given 12-month span–no barriers, no questions.
If you want to help us share these vital necessities with our unhoused friends and neighbors this holiday season (and all year long), click the button below to make your donation to Street Books in Give!Guide today!
Partner Appreciation: Hygiene4All
We love Hygiene 4 All for so many reasons. What they do for our community is invaluable: providing showers, port-a-potties, personal care items, hot nutritious meals, laundry, tent-side waste pick-up, and more—truly life-saving and vital support. But we also love them because of how they do what they do (with paid, unhoused ambassadors and unpaid, housed volunteers) and why they do what they do. They tell their full origin story here, a powerful example of good. H4A! was created in 2018 as a humane and caring alternative to policing and criminalization with the belief that these societally created problems would be better addressed by creating facilities that provide access to safe, clean, and accessible bathrooms, showers, trash disposal, and places to sleep for those living outside. Plus, Street Books hosts a place-based library at H4A! Please support them today and be a part of the growing movement for connection and care on Portland’s streets!