If even a year ago, I’d been told that the Bright Lights Book Project would be what it is now, I’d have been incredulous. A year ago, I was sort of on the right track, in that I was painting newspaper boxes. I also participated in a kids’ day in Sutton and organized a reading/silent auction. Sort of on the right track – the newspaper boxes idea was perhaps not my best. Kids painted them, but they weren’t as popular as say, Little Libraries.

Alys at last year's Kids' day

I had two boxes at the Alaska State Fair. This year I think that we’ll pass on doing this – it takes a lot of time and I have a lot more going on than I did last year at this time.

The kids’ day went very well. I wish that we’d done more of this at the weekly Friday Fling, a quasi-farmer’s market. Problem was, I again had a lot going on, and the other volunteers were more up for doing distributing than they were in doing interactive activities.

However, the books continue to go to appreciative readers. I was at Vagabond Blues and had a hard time accessing the book shelves because there was sizeable crowd, mainly comprised of kids, in front of the bookcase. And the nonfiction bookcase was as empty as I’d ever seen it.

I noticed that one teenager, who had an armload of books, had picked up a book in tiling. I was quite surprised – I’d just put it there as filler. I mentioned this to her mother who said that she and her daughter were very interested in tiling.

At the same time, the books keep coming in. Today, a woman brought in eight boxes of hardback fiction, mystery, and thrillers. The books were new and looked like they had not yet been read. I immediately distributed one box – the other seven boxes are going to go really fast.

I also attended a BLBP board meeting – the focus was on the building project. No one said that at this time, this wasn’t a possibility. Rather, everyone was for it, and appreciated Pete’s efforts. However, we have hit another snag though. The church pastor said that we are going to need to get permission from the parishioners in order to build on the land. She is going to ask them about this, this Sunday. As Pete said, they can either say yes, no, or table it until they get more information.

Oddly enough, I did not, as one might expect, feel dismayed when presented with this bit of information. Rather, I had a wait and see attitude, which is actually quite rare for me.

This may have been in part because a board member called around and found out that a local contractor, one that moves buildings, is interested in giving us an assist. Our acquiring an already built building would mean that we wouldn’t have to have one built. I say, go for it.

Tomorrow, Friday Fling. There’s a 90 percent chance of rain, to which I say, might be a good day to sleep in.

Next: 212. 8/5/22: Tally Ho