{"id":24257,"date":"2018-11-13T22:24:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T09:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yaketyyak.nzstaging.com\/2018\/11\/the-man-who-turned-his-home-into-a-public-library\/"},"modified":"2022-12-12T22:55:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T09:55:24","slug":"the-man-who-turned-his-home-into-a-public-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yaketyyakfurniture.com\/en_nz\/2018\/11\/the-man-who-turned-his-home-into-a-public-library\/","title":{"rendered":"The man who turned his home into a public library"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hernando Guanlao is a sprightly man in his early 60s, with one abiding passion \u2013 books. They\u2019re his pride and joy, which is just as well because, whether he likes it or not, they seem to be taking over his house. Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, has set up an informal library outside his home in central Manila, to encourage his local community to share his joy of reading.<\/p>\n

The idea is simple. Readers can take as many books as they want, for as long as they want \u2013 even permanently. As Guanlao says: \u201cThe only rule is that there are no rules.\u201d It\u2019s a policy you might assume would end very quickly \u2013 with Guanlao having no books at all. But in fact, in the 12 years he\u2019s been running his library \u2013 or, in his words, his book club \u2013 he\u2019s found that his collection has grown rather than diminished, as more and more people donate to the cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that the books are speaking to me. That\u2019s why it multiplies like that,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cThe books are telling me they want to be read\u2026 they want to be passed around.\u201d Guanlao started his library in 2000, shortly after the death of his parents. He was looking for something to honour their memory, and that was when he hit upon the idea of promoting the reading habit he\u2019d inherited.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw my old textbooks upstairs and decided to come up with the concept of having the public use them,\u201d he says. So he put the books \u2013 a collection of fewer than 100 \u2013 outside the door of his house to see if anyone wanted to borrow them. They did, and they brought the books back with others to add to the collection \u2013 and the library was born.<\/p>\n

Such is the current turnover that Guanlao confesses he has no idea how many books are in his possession, but there are easily 2,000 or 3,000 on the shelves and in the boxes stacked outside his front door. And that\u2019s before you move inside, where books are rapidly encroaching into every available space. You can hardly get into the front room, the car has long since been moved out of the garage, and books are even stacked all the way up the stairs.<\/p>\n

The library is not advertised, but somehow, every day, a steady stream of people find their way there. On the day we visited, some shop assistants came to browse during their lunch break, a local man borrowed a weighty tome about the history of St John\u2019s Gospel, and some schoolchildren picked up some textbooks \u2013 although I noticed they were taking some fashion magazines as well.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s people like Celine who sustain the library. She lives down the road from Guanlao, and she arrived with two bulging bags of books \u2013 some of which she was returning, others of which she was planning to donate. She says she loves the concept of the library, because Filipinos \u2013 certainly those who are not particularly wealthy \u2013 have limited access to books.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been to any public libraries except the national library in Manila,\u201d she says, explaining that it is quite far away \u2013 and it is not possible to borrow any books. If she wants to buy a book, the average price is about 300 pesos (\u00a34.50, $7), she says. Imported books \u2013 especially children\u2019s books \u2013 could easily be twice that amount. \u201cConsidering the income here, I think parents have other priorities,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

To help the poorest communities in Manila, Nanie Guanlao does not wait for them to find him \u2013 he goes to them, on his \u201cbook bike\u201d, which has a large basket piled high with books. He\u2019s also started to set his sights outside Manila. He\u2019s already given several boxes of books to a man trying to set up a similar venture in Bicol province, a 10-hour drive from Manila, and his latest plan is to help a friend who wants to start up a library in the far south of the country. She wants to set up a \u201cbook boat\u201d, travelling around the islands of Sulu and Basilan \u2013 an area better known as a hideout for separatist rebels than for any great access to literature.<\/p>\n

As we sat outside Nanie Guanlao\u2019s house in the midday sun, watching people browse through his collection, he tells me why he thought it was worth spending all his time \u2013 even to the point of giving up his job and surviving purely on his savings \u2013 to maintain the library.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t do justice to these books if you put them in a cabinet or a box,\u201d he says. \u201cA book should be used and reused. It has life, it has a message. \u201cAs a book caretaker, you become a full man.\u201d<\/p>\n

YAKETY YAK BLOG, mostly about cool libraries, furniture and design \u2013 keeping you abreast of our world. (Source: BBC News, by\u00a0Kate McGeown,\u00a0<\/span>Manila).<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>