A library about love
Love, read aloud to those who understand
Ten kinds of love, one hundred and sixty-nine true stories. About falling, about family, about friends and strangers — and about how gently you treat yourself.
Ten kinds of love · 169 stories · 30 sentences worth copying down
190stories
100quotes
10shapes of love
Today's picks
Three stories a day, read slowly
Learning ballroom at sixty, Old Chen found a second spring on the dance floor
A widower joined a community dance class and met a retired teacher. Two "starting from scratch" people became dance partners, dinner companions, and each other's voice. Second springs are real.
01
Forty years as a mountain postman: half his bag is medicine
Village postman Luo's bag carries letters — and prescription refills for dozens of elderly households. He also watches chimney smoke: three days cold means someone inside needs help.
02
Being friends with your fifteen-year-old is ten times harder than leading him
His fifteenth year began with a slammed door. Three "crazy" acts — an apology, silence, sharing my failures — and light started leaking under that closed door again.
03
Recently updated
Stories just finished
01Louis Braille: six dots that lit a path for children in the dark02Jonas Salk: a vaccine that could have been sold, given to the world03Tim Berners-Lee: when the web was born, he chose to give it away04A pizzeria in Naples: by the oven fire, a seat kept for her05The bento father of Tokyo: words he can't say, packed into a lunchbox06A bicycle shop in Havana: he can't see the colors, but remembers every bike07A street piano in Berlin: a stranger plays the song of her youth08A cat canteen in Istanbul: gentleness raised by one street
Love picks
Butterflies, long devotion, and words never said
01A pizzeria in Naples: by the oven fire, a seat kept for her02Every Sunday, Tram 28 Runs to Where Memory Still Lives03He buys one rose a week — for the wife who no longer remembers him04The thirty-seventh rejection letter — she read it first05A good marriage keeps one balcony for each06Forty years at the lighthouse, a lifetime of letters in the mailbox07After she lost her speech, he became her translator08At four in the morning flower market, they set out thirty years of love as a stall09The bicycle at the railway station: he met her train for thirty years10A couple with two passports, carrying home in their suitcases
Family picks
Parents, children, and the silence at a dinner table
01The bento father of Tokyo: words he can't say, packed into a lunchbox02The Time Difference in a Bowl of Soup: Longing from Osaka to Toronto03At sixty, my father said "sorry" to me three times04One family photo, three versions made by the photo studio05He handed his spare house key to me, an outsider06Our family has an iron rule: Sunday dinner, everyone present07The day my stepmother moved in, she brought me white sneakers08At sixty-eight, Grandpa went back to night school09A cross-city rotation: we take turns going home to Grandma10Grandpa's chessboard: he let me win for thirty years, then showed his hand
Hope picks
However long the night, someone left a light on
01Winter swimming in Helsinki: learning to begin again in the coldest water02On the First Tuesday of Every Month, Mules Carry Thirty Crates of Books Up the Mountain03Three years after the fire, the bakery's oven is warm again04The year the flood drowned the fields, the whole village shared its seeds05The hand that relearned to draw after the crash drew a picture book06The recovery running club: off the hospital bed, onto the marathon course07Learning a language at fifty: her resume gained a line08The hail-damaged apples became the village's first cider09Every step of the blind runner has a guide beside it10The pruned-to-bones pear tree bloomed all over the next year
Kindness picks
That little light a stranger hands you
01A street piano in Berlin: a stranger plays the song of her youth02The Coffee Hanging on the Wall Is Left for a Stranger03Every September, Before School Starts, This Milan Cobbler Charges Nothing04The free air pump at the lane's end — thirty years, no coin dropped05Before closing time, the half-price basket belongs to the elderly first06Suspended coffee: a cup prepaid for a stranger07In the alley by the hospital, a row of stoves has burned for eighteen years08The little basket on the door — a whole building's tenderness09The uniform exchange corner at the school gate10The "story auntie" on the subway — ten years of picture books
People picks
Giving a whole life to one gentle thing
01Louis Braille: six dots that lit a path for children in the dark02Jonas Salk: a vaccine that could have been sold, given to the world03Tim Berners-Lee: when the web was born, he chose to give it away04Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Thirty Million Trees05Zhong Yang: forty million seeds, his gift to the future06Tu Youyou: one artemisia plant that saved millions worldwide07Zhang Fuqing: war medals locked in a suitcase for sixty-three years08Mao Xianglin: seven years chiseling a road into the cliff face09Marie Curie: distilling light that belongs to all humanity, in a leaky shed10Jane Goodall: sixty years in the forest, waiting for chimpanzees to trust her
Editor's picks
Ten pieces we keep coming back to
01Louis Braille: six dots that lit a path for children in the dark02A pizzeria in Naples: by the oven fire, a seat kept for her03The bento father of Tokyo: words he can't say, packed into a lunchbox04A bicycle shop in Havana: he can't see the colors, but remembers every bike05A street piano in Berlin: a stranger plays the song of her youth06A cat canteen in Istanbul: gentleness raised by one street07Winter swimming in Helsinki: learning to begin again in the coldest water08The penguin keeper of New Zealand's coast: standing watch each night for little blue penguins09A Seoul Nurse's Wednesday: Three Hours I Keep for Myself10The Last Night Shift at a Norwegian Lighthouse: Handover, All Normal
Small tools
Light little things that help you say it out loud
Write a line for yourself too
You do not need a special occasion. If you want to tell someone something today, go tell them.