Books by the Sea is a Northumberland, UK, based charitable project from Emble Arts, that was born during lockdown. We encourage reading, seeing and thinking slowly, right here by the sea in North Northumberland and, more recently, in the Scottish Borders with Books by the River. We offer books to all: for you, from us, for free; and hopefully you’ll observe our simple maxim: take a book, leave a book.
Our libraries are dotted along the coast between Warkworth and Berwick upon Tweed, with our River branches spreading inland along the Tweed and its tributaries. These treasure troves of free books are for you, for fun and for literacy.
Connecting locals and visitors, our libraries all look alike and are built by a local stalwart. They are tiny, wooden, black huts with a pitched roof. You’ll recognise them when you see them, see our little friend above [add in the little boy image]. The libraries are all located in places that encourage walking, reading and sharing ideas in an analogue way.
We know it isn’t very analogue to have a website. This is very basic and is just to help you find the libraries, if we’re candid we’d rather rely on serendipity. We like the idea that people stumble upon a library just by happenstance, find a wonderful book and are transported. Now put down the screen and pick up a page.
Our libraries are dotted along the coast between Warkworth and Berwick upon Tweed, with our River branches spreading inland along the Tweed and its tributaries. These treasure troves of free books are for you, for fun and for literacy.
Connecting locals and visitors, our libraries all look alike and are built by a local stalwart. They are tiny, wooden, black huts with a pitched roof. You’ll recognise them when you see them, see our little friend above [add in the little boy image]. The libraries are all located in places that encourage walking, reading and sharing ideas in an analogue way.
We know it isn’t very analogue to have a website. This is very basic and is just to help you find the libraries, if we’re candid we’d rather rely on serendipity. We like the idea that people stumble upon a library just by happenstance, find a wonderful book and are transported. Now put down the screen and pick up a page.
We are indebted to many for the success of Books by the Sea. Each library is cared for by a Steward, a member of the local community. Our Stewards find books when people take more than they leave, they stamp each book in the library with our own Ex Libris – so you have to take us with you – we are nothing without the Stewards. They are very kind.
We enjoy close relationships with a number of local independent bookshops, please make the effort to spend your money in yours, we know there are easier and erosive options just a click away. We feel a kindred spirit to the people at Analog Sea, which is offline only and sold by Interesting Books + Zines in Berwick, Main Street Trading in St Boswells, Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick and by our dear friends at John Sandoe in London. We owe a great deal and our great identity and graphics to Dale Maloney at the Old School Art Gallery in Alnmouth. Matthew Jarratt and Wendy Scott got it very early on and are a constant support. Thank you kindly to Ben Lewis of Interesting Design Studio for this website.
Emble Arts published a pamphlet called Forecast as an aside to accompany Books by the Sea, it includes work by people inspired by our sense of place and is available from Interesting Books + Zines in Berwick. We then received funding to make a fabulous film of Forecast, which you can watch on this page or here on Youtube. We will do more things here and there, if you’d like to commit some time and have talent to offer, please do get in touch.
Emble Arts is the charitable arm of a local farming business.
Books by the Sea is affiliated with Little Free Library.
We enjoy close relationships with a number of local independent bookshops, please make the effort to spend your money in yours, we know there are easier and erosive options just a click away. We feel a kindred spirit to the people at Analog Sea, which is offline only and sold by Interesting Books + Zines in Berwick, Main Street Trading in St Boswells, Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick and by our dear friends at John Sandoe in London. We owe a great deal and our great identity and graphics to Dale Maloney at the Old School Art Gallery in Alnmouth. Matthew Jarratt and Wendy Scott got it very early on and are a constant support. Thank you kindly to Ben Lewis of Interesting Design Studio for this website.
Emble Arts published a pamphlet called Forecast as an aside to accompany Books by the Sea, it includes work by people inspired by our sense of place and is available from Interesting Books + Zines in Berwick. We then received funding to make a fabulous film of Forecast, which you can watch on this page or here on Youtube. We will do more things here and there, if you’d like to commit some time and have talent to offer, please do get in touch.
Emble Arts is the charitable arm of a local farming business.
Books by the Sea is affiliated with Little Free Library.