About Nowbrary

The books we keep near us

A nowbrary is the books we keep near us. The ones we return to, take on a long journey, or open again because we suspect they have something else to teach us.

Books move in and out as our lives change. A shelf can become a kind of life bookmark: a glimpse of the questions, interests and ideas keeping us company.

Nowbrary began with Moe taking books along on stroller walks through his neighbourhood. Some went into little free libraries; others came home. Making room became a way of asking which books he still wanted close.

This gallery extends that curiosity to other people’s shelves.

Choose a reader and open a book. Inside are selected passages, personal notes and marginalia: a sentence someone stopped at, an argument they questioned, a thought they wanted to keep. Surviving marks from readers such as Melville and Montaigne sit alongside notes from readers today.

The notes matter because they let us encounter the person doing the reading. What caught their attention? Where did they disagree? What might we see differently through their eyes?

Your own nowbrary can begin with the books already within reach. Share a photograph, or keep a page at /nowbrary on your website. Update it when the shelf changes. It needs no account and no reading target.