This dustbin man built a huge public library from books other people had thrown away

Jose Alberto Gutierrez checks books stacked in his library on the first floor of his house in Bogota.
Jose Alberto Gutierrez checks books stacked in his library on the first floor of his house in Bogota. Credit: GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images

For 20 years, Columbian rubbish-collector Jose Alberto Gutierrez has been holding to the books he finds while on his rounds in Bogota.

After two decades his collection totals more than 20,000 books - many of them thrown away by the people of the Colombian capital, now given a new life in the huge library Jose has amassed.

Jose looks through some of the books Credit: GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images

The books take up several rooms in the Gutierrez family home, from where they're lent out to neighbours through a free community library, which Jose runs with the help of his wife, Luz Mery Gutierrez, and their three children.

The first book he ever brought home was a discarded copy of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. It was soon joined by The Little PrinceSophie's World, and various novels by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Jose and coleagues collecting rubbish in Bogota. Credit: GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images

Although poverty meant Jose had to leave school at a young age, his mother would send him to bed with a book every night - which gave him a life-long love of reading.

Now, through his swelling community library, called La Fuerza de las Palabras (Spanish for 'The Strength of Words'),  he aims to pass on that love to other children from low-income families.

Jose is known as 'The Lord of Books' Credit: GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images

"The whole value of what we do lies in helping kids start reading," he told Al Jazeera.

The Gutierrez's used to run children's reading sessions but, as more and more books come to the library - more through donations these days than through Jose's scavenging - they've run out of space to do that at home.

Instead, they're now concentrating on travelling around the country, delivering books to poor and remote districts where there's no public library.

 
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/dustbin-man-built-huge-public-library-books-people-had-thrown/
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