Free Range Books.

Hi there! 

I’m not Emma Watson, but I’m hiding books just like she does! Ms. Watson has been sneaking books onto public transportation for a while now and I wanted to join in.

I’m Linda Mercury, and this is one of my very favorite books. Please take good care of it. When you are done, leave it again for someone else to find.

If you have thoughts, come join me at See Jane Publish  (seejanepublish.wordpress.com) or my blog (www.lindamercury.com).  Let’s get all Portland out there and have free range books.

Spread the words,

Linda

Last month, with the above note, I snuck two copies of both The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and Women’s History for Beginner’s by Bonnie J. Morris into various locations around the Portland Greater Metropolitan Area.

I’m a fervent feminist. Lately, though, I had fallen into despair over current events. I had lost hope. When Jessie from See Jane Publish first approached me with the idea to salute Emma Watson’s brilliant campaign to increase literacy, I leaped at the opportunity. But what books would I choose?

History is a subject near and dear to my heart. As a young woman studying history in college, I fought against professors that stated, “There are no good women historians,” and “A class on the history of Sub-Saharan Africa is like a class on the history of Lichtenstein.”

So, yeah. That was a thing. Obviously, Women’s History for Beginners was the perfect book for this project. What an incredible book to fight these still-present attitudes!

I chose Beauvoir’s breakthrough book since it began the Second Wave of feminism. Published in France in 1949, it forced the world to think of women’s equality in ways beyond getting the vote. Beauvoir’s assertion that one’s sex/gender is created and influenced by society broke open the essentialist thoughts that women are inherently chaotic, animalist, and lesser than men.



I hope the people who read these books write in the margins, laugh, cry, and discuss their thoughts with other people. This was my first time doing free-range books, but it won’t be my last.