Woman Turns A 110-Year-Old Dying Tree Into A Magical Free Library

The enchanting tree library is a wondeful way to preserve one’s love for reading.

Source: Facebook/Sharalee Armitage Howard

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on July 20, 2021. It has since been updated.

Technology may have advanced so much that you may think books are obsolete, but think again. There’s something enchanting about getting lost in the pages of a book you can hold, smell, and touch. And how magical would it be to get (read: free) books in a 110-year-old tree!? Sharalee Armitage Howard watched a dying 110-year-old cottonwood tree in front of her Idaho home slowly dropping dead branches on her flower gardens and sidewalk. The librarian, artist, and former bookbinder decided to give the stump a new lease of life—she turned it into a “little tree library.”

“Someone willing to take the time to give new life to a stump would never cut down a healthy tree to do it,” Howard told Bored Panda. “It was dropping HUGE branches for years onto the sidewalk and street (even without windy weather). We were really worried about someone getting hurt. One finally hit our son’s car. The average lifespan of a cottonwood tree is merely 40-50 years… so it got to live more than twice that already!”