SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Lisa Bartkowski is an avid book reader. “I've read probably 30 books since I've been in Saratoga this year,” the trainer admitted Friday. Bartkowski and longtime friend and fellow book lover Donna Jean March brought their passion for books to the Saratoga backstretch last week with the installation of a Little Free Library next to her barn 22.Bartkowski first became aware of the concept of little libraries–small roadside receptacles where people can freely take and leave books–on a trip to Key West last winter.“I did not know what they were, but I thought they were very interesting,” Bartkowski said. “I was afraid to touch them, you know, but I was looking in them. I thought they were for a school maybe or something. I didn't really know what they were, but I thought it was pretty neat.”It was March who introduced Bartkowski to the network of libraries across the country, including an app listing locations administered by San Jose State University.“It's so funny because Donna and I always have traded books and recommended books to each other,” Bartkowski said. “She told me about Harlan Coben last year, and I read every single one of his books, it has to be like 25 books or something. I guess she just assumed that I knew about the Little Free Library, so I started seeing them and also looking for them.”Like any true book connoisseur, Bartkowski had a problem and the free library seemed like a perfect solution.“The free libraries were so great for me because I have so many books,” she said. “If it's a book that's terrible, I'll just get rid of it. But if you really like them, it's just how many can you keep? So, I started dropping off books. Of course, my idea was, I'm going to get rid of these 10 books, and I'd end up with 15 books. I always end up taking more than I leave.”Eventually, Bartkowski and March–who first became friends while galloping for Dickie Dutrow–decided to bring the little library to Saratoga's backstretch.“A friend of mine is really good at building things, and there was a lot of scrap laying around my place,” Bartkowski recalled. “So Donna and I came up with the basic idea, and we just told this friend of mine about it, and he looked it up on online, and he built it from mostly scrap. I had to give him money for a sheet of plywood and one kind of paint, but he got the roof from a friend of his, and it was just really cool the way it all came together. It was very inexpensive, and everybody loves it.”Bartkowski added, “You know, you're exhausted all the time when you work on the backside, but I thought, if these guys have these books right here, maybe some of them will pick them up and start reading them and find out that they love reading. And sure enough, it's amazing. We have had a lot of turnover already.”The library opened last week with a mixture of novels, books about horses, and books in Spanish, some of which were donated by Jeff Budge, manager of Friends Book Shop located inside the Saratoga Springs Public Library. Charlie Israel, owner of the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore on Phila Street, also donated books to help get the little library up and running.“There are two shelves, and about half a shelf is horse books,” Bartkowski said. “On the top left half, we put all Spanish books, and then in the rest of it, we just put books–mysteries, popular books. There's “Where the Crawdads Sing,” a brand new copy that Donna got someplace. There is some [John] Grisham, there's C. J. Box, he wrote a very popular series out in the Midwest with this protagonist, Joe Pickett.”The concept of a book exchange has taken off, as well.“We put a copy of “The Prophet,” by Khalil Gibran in Spanish in there, and someone took that, and I don't know if it was the same person, but yesterday someone left a Thomas Mann book in Spanish.”Edison Alzate, assistant to trainer Chad Summers, is among the fans of the new library.“Edison was just riding by on a horse, and I was standing there waiting to take a horse off the track, and he was like, 'Lisa, I'm going to take a book, and I'll bring one later,” Bartkowski said. “I told him, 'No, no, just keep it, keep it.' He said, 'Thanks, I love to read.' Can you ever imagine on the backside hearing a male backstretch worker saying, “I love to read.' Shouting it out. It's probably like one of the first times that's ever happened.”Bartkowski and March already have winter plans for the little library.“Right now, it's between my barn and the NYTHA cottage, which is on the main track in Saratoga,” Bartkowski said. “I'm only going to be here through the middle of September, probably. But we have already spoken to [New York Racing Association's] Jim Weber and he is going to move it to the Oklahoma side, because the main track side pretty much empties out and everything goes over to the Oklahoma. So Donna will take care of it until the track closes, and then it's going to move inside the NYTHA cottage for the winter.”Bartkowski admitted she hopes the concept catches on and can be expanded to Belmont Park, but for right now she's enjoying the positive reception of her first little library.“I'm really happy that it's got the interest it has,” she said. “Even if there was very little interest, I would have been happy if anybody took books out, but it really sounds like it's getting going.”The post Bartkowski’s Love of Books Gives Birth to Little Free Library on Saratoga Backstretch appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.