You Can’t Have Outdoor Bookshelves in Every City: In Bonn, Germany, Daniel Hamermesh noticed a bookcase full of books in the public park where he runs, with a young woman removing one book and returning another. These are used books that make up essentially a free voluntary lending library.
Would this cabinet last undamaged in a U.S. city one day? he doubts it.
The replies prove him wrong
The replies to the writers post show a wide variety of levels of trust for something like this.
And there are, it seems, more outdoor bookcases in the States than one might think.