I’ve had the book The First Global Village: How Portugal Changed the World by Martin Page sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years now. It’s a book that looks at the role of Portugal in international trade, politics, religion and culture. I remember someone lending it to me and suggesting I read it, but I can’t for the life of me remember who it was. That’s hardly ever happened to me. I have asked all the people I can think of who might lend me such a book (some several times!), but I can’t find its owner. (Note to self: Always write my name in books when I lend them.) What’s even sadder is that I haven’t read it. I’m sure it would be an interesting read but I have a pile of books I want to read and I may not even get to them this year, ironically, because of all this writing…:)

So, today, I decided to give it away. (Thank you, lender, whoever you are, for sharing it with me.) I dropped it in the Little Free Library nearby, the night before Columbus Day, the American holiday that commemorates the discovery of an Italian explorer working for the Spanish Crown who landed in the Americas, making a pretty darn significant change to the face of the world, in ways no one could even begin to imagine 500 years ago.