Public bookshelves are appearing across Germany on street corners, city squares and in suburban supermarkets. In these free­for­all libraries, people can grab whatever they want to read, and leave behind anything they want for others. There’s no need to register, no due date, and you can take or give as many as you want.“This project is aimed at everyone who likes to read. It is open for everybody, ” Michael Aubermann, one of the organizers of the free book exchange said.

The western city’ s latest public shelf was put up next to Bayenturm. It is the fourth free shelf that Aubermann’ s group, the Cologne Citizen’s Foundation, has placed outside.“We set up our other outdoor shelves last year and it’s been working really well, ” said Aubermann. The public bookshelves, which are usually financed by donations and cared for by local volunteer groups, have appeared independently of each other in many cities, suburbs and villages. Each shelf holds around 200 books and it takes about six weeks for a complete turnover, with all the old titles replaced by new ones.

Even commercial book stores and online book sellers seem to support the idea of free book exchanges.“We see this project rather as a sales promotion than as competition, ”said Elmar Muether. “If books are present everywhere, it helps our business, too.”

So far, the Cologne book group has had few problems with damage or other problems. Aubermann said, “Propaganda (宣传) is the only kind of literature we do not allow here.”

At another bookshelf in the Bayenthal neighborhood, the lower shelves are reserved for children’s literature only.“It is important that we make it easy for everyone to participate in this ‘reading culture on the street’—from old readers to kids to immigrants, ”Aubermann said.

While most of the shelves have so far been put up in upscale neighborhoods, Aubermann and the 20 volunteers who help look after the project are planning to put up future shelves in poor neighborhoods, where citizens often don’t have as much access to literature.

The pleasures of learning

Learning is a natural pleasure, inborn and instinctive (本能的), one of the essential pleasures of the human race. When Archimedes discovered the principle of specific gravity by observing his own displacement of water in a bathtub (浴缸), he jumped out with delight, shouting, “Eureka, Eureka!” (I have found it). 【小题1】

This pleasure is not limited to learning from textbooks, which are too often boring. 【小题2】 By opening a book, one can connect with a voice for distant in time and space, and hear it speaking, mind to mind, heart to heart. As for reading books, this contains two different delights. One is the pleasure of understanding the unexpected, such as when one meets a new author who has a new vision of the world. 【小题3】

Far beyond books, learning means keeping the mind open and active to receive all kinds of experiences. Among the pleasures of learning, we should include travel, travel with an open mind, an alert eye and a wish to understand other peoples, other places, rather than looking in them for a mirror image of oneself.

【小题4】 Every new art you learn appears like a new window on the universe, which helps you acquire a new sense. Crafts, too, are well worth exploring. Most crafts contain one essential pleasure, the pleasure of making something that will last.

【小题5】 Instead of decreasing, in time, like health and strength, its returns go on increasing, provided that you aim throughout your life, as you continue learning to integrate (整合)your thoughts to make it harmonious.

A donation by a famous writer has helped start an effort, called the United States of Readers, to help poor children read more books.

The classroom programme is being launched by Scholastic Book Clubs with a donation of $1.5 million from the writer James Patterson.

Scholastic announced the programme recently, aiming to bring books to 32,000 poor children who are in kindergarten to eighth grade.

Judy Newman, president of Scholastic Book Clubs, said that in many communities people don’t have enough money to buy books. So her company “needed to come up with an alternative to our tried-and-true model, because every child needs to be able to choose and own books, and see themselves as a reader!”

Scholastic is a large publisher of books for children and educational materials. Its goal is to get books into schools to increase literacy. The company has publishing rights in the U.S. for books like the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series.

A gift from Patterson helped start the new programme. He is credited with selling millions of books. He has already donated more than $10 million to teachers and students through Scholastic.

He said that he has supported literacy for many years. He believes reading skills are important for the country.

“In many cases, kids simply need access to books— and especially books they want to read— to fall in love with reading, characters, and stories.”

Patterson added that the programme “will bring books to those schools and communities that need them the most, and ones that we haven’t served before.”

Scholastic describes the programme on its website. It says the United States of Reader programme targets children in schools serving poor communities. The company said it has chosen a limited number of schools to take part this year but hopes to expand the programme in the coming years.