casual poet library

Since my last post a month ago, I have fallen into a new adventure — I’m building a shared library in Singapore.

It all started from this Instagram post. I found a shop space within three days of the post and now I’m waiting to confirm our design plans before starting renovations. We have 180 people on board with us as bookshelf-owners. You can read some of the updates on this crazy journey via my latest posts on Instagram.

So what’s Casual Poet Library? It’s a shared library in the heartlands of Singapore run entirely by individuals in the community. Each individual pays a small amount of money every month to be a bookshelf-owner. On each shelf, bookshelf-owners share about themselves and their book recommendations via little note cards, and tend to their shelves like they are tending to a (book) garden. The library is open to everyone and all books are for people to browse and borrow.

I went into this thinking it was about books. After all I’ve dreamed about opening a bookstore all my life. But the more I worked on the project the more I realised it’s about community, about building bridges between people, about the revitalisation of actual places and also actual hearts.

Feeling really energised and excited about this and will share more updates along the way!