Bengaluru-based educator starts new community library in the city

As a child growing up in the ocean-girdled port town of Kochi, Mather (who goes by only one name) just did not have access to as many books as she would have liked. “Our parents thought it was a waste of money,” recalls the Bengaluru-based educator, a fellow with Teach For India, a non-profit working towards educational equity in India.This led to her and some of her friends at school deciding to set up a system “where we would make sure that no two people in the group were purchasing the same book. That way, all of us got to read multiple books by rotating them,” she says, fondly recalling the books she ended up reading this way: the Percy Jackson and Hunger Games series as well as all the John Green books. “This is how a lot of us read back then,” she says.These memories of circulating and sharing books among friends played a big role in her decision to create the Open House Library, a free community library that recently opened its doors to the public. “I wanted to start a library as long as I can remember,” says Mather, who has catalogued and made her own sizeable collection of books, around 500-odd titles, available for anyone who wants to read them. “I really enjoy it when friends come over, go through my bookshelves and pick up something. So, I thought, why not start at some scale now.” BeginningsOn August 26, Mather, who “just couldn’t stop fantasising about having a library”, got two friends to film and edit a reel of her declaring that she was starting one very soon. “We posted it the same day, and it ended up being super popular, which was very shocking to all of us. It got something like 80,000 views,” she remembers, with a smile.She had not really catalogued the books or set up the website yet, but the number of views the reel garnered forced her to speed up the process. “I had 14 days to catalogue all my books, set up the website, create a sign-up process and figure out how the library would work,” says Mather, who officially opened the library on September 10.While anyone can view the collection on the website, you need to sign up on a Google form to access it, which then imports the sign-up data to the library website. Once you fill out the Google form and become a member, you can also log in to place holds and checkouts, attend reading circles or browse the physical collection, she explains.Since she operates out of her house and is away at work during the first half of the day, customers can pick up books at the location or have them delivered by courier between 5 and 10 pm on weekdays. “And once you check out a book, you can keep it for a month,” says Mather, a member of the Free Libraries Network (FLN), a collective of grassroots organisations and practitioners that builds, operates, and advocates for free libraries in India.Curating her collection Mather says that she has always wanted to start a library | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Some of the books, which are part of her collection, include classics like George Orwell’s 1984, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, as well as the contemporary literary fiction of Haruki Murakami, Miranda July, Fredrik Backman, Sally Rooney, Paul Murray, Toni Morrison and Kamila Shamsie, among others.“I am an avid reader of classics and modern classics, so that is a big part of my collection,” says Mather. She also owns a lot of anti-caste writing, feminist and queer literature, and translations, all of which library members can borrow.However, she has steered clear of popular genres like self-help, romance, and fantasy, a conscious choice she knows could risk alienating some readers. “I don’t read those, but a lot of people have offered those as donations. But I’ve had to deny them for space and curatorial reasons.” In her view, these genres are both accessible and affordable, unlike literary fiction or queer literature, which is often “very expensive to access in India,” Mather says, adding that she decided early on to offer a curated collection of books. “It is very important for me to maintain my collection as an anti-caste, feminist, queer collection.”Reading circles and more At an Open House Library reading circle | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Another aspect of the Open House Library is its reading circles, which members can join voluntarily. So far, she has held three editions in her house, where people can bring their own books or choose one from the library. “We just sit quietly and read for an hour, and after we finish, sit in a circle and share our thoughts,” says Mather, who believes the circles offer a chance to slow down, quiet the mind and articulate thoughts on what one is reading.“I’ve really enjoyed having those discussions with people. In fact, more people want to join, but we are limited by space right now, so I have started reaching out to other public spaces asking if they can host us.”Mather’s bigger goal now is to recreate, on a larger scale, what she and her friends did in school years ago: rotating books within a circle of people. “When I set up the library, I did not want to get other people’s books involved, because I wanted to check, with my own books, how safe this is, whether books got lost or damaged.” Right now, Mather is working on a website that will facilitate this exchange, allowing people to sign up as both a borrower and a lender, if they want to. “This would allow each member to also upload their own personal libraries onto the website. This way, even if I don’t have the book, someone else may,” she says, pointing out that book exchanges are already happening between members, in an informal way.For her, having the library has been a “heartwarming” exercise so far, one she hopes to sustain and expand. “Because we are only a month in, I am trying not to get too ahead of myself. But in my head, the long-term goal is to have a huge library space that can house a much bigger collection in Bengaluru,” says Mather.To know about the library, log in to libib.com/u/openhouselibrary