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The Public Bookcase in a Paris Park
A photo essay and social experiment about the sharing of books in a leafy corner of the French capital
Since the start of the year, I’ve been walking through Square des Batignolles on my way to work. It’s a small park in the 17th arrondissement of Paris with a look that can only be described as ‘Parisian’. Nestled between the Champs-Élysées and Montmartre, it features a crêperie, a glasshouse, a fence, and a collection of seats all painted in the city’s iconic green colour. The fact that tourists seldom ever venture into the Batignolles district also ensures that the park remains a gem known only by locals.
I began walking through the park every morning because I found that doing so did an awful lot of good. Before I sat down at my desk and opened my inbox, simply being among trees and water makes the morning feel so much more natural-seeming and pleasant.
But while walking through the park one morning, I spotted a public bookcase. With its upside-down V-shaped diagonal roof slabs, it looked like a letterbox, but a quick glance inside revealed shelves with books.
The sight of the bookcase made me curious about what books it had on display, but also, perhaps more interestingly, how those books changed from day to day. So I had an idea: what…
