One For The Books

Nanie Guanlao affirms the law of giving and receiving through his informal library.

- Joy Rojas

If there was ever a perfect time for Hernando Guanlao to prove that the spirit of generosity—as in the no-strings attached type of sharing— actually works, it was nearly 20 years ago when the then middle-aged former accountant found himself totally broke. “I had nothing to give during those years,” says Mang Nanie.

Or so he thought. To honor the memory of his parents, whose work as government employees allowed them to give their children the gift of education, he gathered his only possessions at the time, about 50 used books, and placed them on the sidewalk outside the home he grew up in. This marked the start of Reading Club 2000, his all-day, every-day, no-rules library that encourages anyone to take and give books as they please.

STREET LIBRARY

Word spread quickly about the humble aklatan sa bangketa and its affable vocabularyo (a play on the words “vocabulary” and albularyo, or folk healer). As countless books were either picked up by voracious bookworms or sent to schools and communities outside Manila and in far-flung areas, countless more arrived in the form of unsolicited donations from people looking for a place to pass on their preloved encyclopedias, children’s books, textbooks, and novels. The pledges pour in so fast, sometimes they don’t even reach the aklatan. A set of encyclopedias from a doctor in Caloocan, says Mang Nanie, is going straight to a high school in Valenzuela City.

GIVING AND RECEIVING