The little library that could
Melodie Wright, For The Sun — Aug 19th, 2003
Beverly Good unpacks books and magazines from her collection to add to those she already has for loan at the library she opened in her Seabeck home. She offers story time and music lessons from the library, which she hopes will house more than 2,000 books when complete. Staff photo by Carolyn J. Yaschur
The room over Beverly Good's detached garage in Seabeck is a library in progress.
Hardback and paperback books line homemade and second-hand shelves. Card games are piled on the floor. Board games are in another corner and sunlight reflects against the gold bindings of a Golden Books collection.
Good has another 20 book cartons still in storage, waiting to be unpacked and made available to Seabeck residents who want to visit a library without driving to Silverdale or Bremerton.
Patrons won't have to visit a card catalogue here. There isn't one. Stop by between 9 a.m. and noon Mondays and make your requests known. If Good has it in stock, she's happy to lend it to you for a month or so.
In addition to recent bestsellers, she has copies of Reader's Digest, self-helps, parenting titles, how-tos, Time/Life series -- even some Jane Fonda workout books. As Smog said in "The Hobbit," there's plenty and to spare.
Good wasn't always so rich in literature. Growing up in the desert of Nevada, reading material around her house usually consisted of a single Redbook magazine. Her family's interests lay elsewhere, and Good said she didn't learn to read until third grade. There didn't seem to be much point, out there among the horses and heat, to crack open a book.
In high school, she was required to read a book a week. She read James Fennimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" and solved mysteries with Nancy Drew. At garage sales and thrift stores, Good began to collect.
She usually spent a quarter here, 50 cents there, but sometimes shelled out the big bucks for an encyclopedia set.
"Books are a love of mine," Good said. "I think, because I didn't have any as a child, they became very special."
Life hasn't always given her ample time to read. Good holds a master's degree in elementary counseling, and she retired in 1997 as a captain in the Navy Reserve as well as raising six children, now ages 13 to 26. Her husband's Navy career kept the family moving, and each time there were more books to pack.
When Good settled in Seabeck a few months ago, she took with her dozens of cartons.
The room over the garage was perfect for them and as she started to unpack, an idea came to her.
"The (Kitsap Regional Library) Bookmobile only comes out once a month," Good said. "Since you have to drive 20 minutes to get anywhere from here, I thought it would be nice to open my books to my neighbors."
She posted fliers at local convenience stores and knocked on her neighbors' doors. So far, children's story hour, at 9 a.m. each Monday, has attracted only one small boy, but Good is hopeful word will get out.
If her books aren't attraction enough, she plans on offering piano, accordion or guitar lessons. Whatever the interests, there are a few good reasons to make the trek down Good's gravel driveway.
"If I can put a book in a child's hands, I'm happy," she said.
Melodie Wright is a contributing writer for The Sun. Reach editor Lloyd Pritchett at (360) 792-9212 or at lpritchett@thesunlink.com.
Beverly Good's Seabeck Library
• Address: 345 Lost Highway Road
• Directions: From Seabeck Highway, turn left onto Holly Road, turn left onto Seabeck-Holly Road, turn left to Hintzville Road, turn left onto One Mile Road and immediately right onto Lost Highway gravel road.
Take a right at marker 345. Good's home is at the end of the drive.
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