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Hernando Guanlao has one overwhelming passion -- books. And in
an attempt to spread his love of literature to people around him,
he's turned his home into a public library.
Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, has set up an informal
library outside his home in central Manila to encourage his local
community to read more.
The idea is simple but revolutionary: Locals can take as many
books as they want, for as long as they want -- even permanently --
and the whole operation is open 24/7.
“It’s fine with me because ( I know that people need
the book) and in my mind, whatever they take, even everything,
will be returned a thousand fold,” Nanie told the Inquirer Life
Style.
Nanie prefers to think of the library he has been running for
the past 12 years as a book club -- one where community members can
come to discuss different books and literature. Gunlao's project is
formally called The Reading Club 2000; but many know it simply as
“The Library on Balagta's Street."
Amazingly, the library continues to grow until the shelves are
almost overflowing.
BBC News reported that Nanie first got the idea of transforming
his home into a public library shortly after his parents died. He
was looking for a way to honor their memory and thought that
spreading their love of reading was the best way.
"I saw my old textbooks upstairs and decided to come up with the
concept of having the public use them,"
The library began with fewer than 100 books, but the collection
has grown so exponentially that Nanie is no longer able to keep
track of the number of books he has. BBC reports that between
3000 and 4000 books are just outside the front door, and the
library also continues inside Nanie's home, where they are stacked
around the living room and the stairs.
"I haven't been to any public
libraries except the national library in Manila," Nanie's
neighbor told BBC, explaining that it is quite far away -- and it
is not possible to borrow any books.
According to the 13th Geek blog, Nanie also has an abiding
desire to help Manila's poorest. He does not wait for them to find
him -- he goes to them, on his "book bike", which has a large
basket piled high with books.
“I decided to become mobile and came up with a prototype like
this,” he says, showing off a bycicle fitted with a
sidecar that is crammed full of books, newspapers and
magazines, with a laptop lashed to the back of the vehicle.
GMA News reported that Nanie has also started to set his
sights outside Manila. He's 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.
"You don't do justice to these books if you put them in a
cabinet or a box," he told the Inquirer. "A book should be
used and reused. It has life, it has a message. As a book
caretaker, you become a full man."
