When I turned 30, I quit everything – to spend the days the way I want. I live with my family now on the outskirts of Jūrmala, Latvia, a coastal city by the Baltic Sea – in an old wooden house that has been sitting on this dune peninsula for more than a century. There’s a river right there over the meadow and the sea is a little bit further away behind the pine forest.

I’m 38 now and I have been walking these two paths – to the river and to the sea – every day. For me, it’s a whole world. The myriad of opportunities in the microcosmos.

I slowly fell in love with the sea. So much that I wanted to read everything about it. All the books gathered in one little room, that soon turned into an open library, a Sea Library. A magical place. I opened the doors in 2018. My life changed.

There are now more than 700 books in the collection. All of them are dedicated to our blue planet: to its waters and inhabitants, to sailors, surfers, and swimmers, to mermaids, dragons and pirates, islands and abysses, lighthouses, and seaside huts.

All the books are yours, too. If you can’t visit to borrow them, I can send books by post.

Books have to be read, stories have to be shared, and the sea is right there to be looked at.

Over five years, the Sea Library has turned into a community-led place that gathers sea lovers from all over the world, both in person and online. All boundaries are fluid like water. There are no rules. It’s not an ordinary library. It was born out of the sea.

Books can be donated, the library can be supported, and yet the most important for me are the curious readers.

Suggest books, write me letters!

Yours,

Anna

Illustration by Laura Lukeviča, find her work on Instagram @lauracmyk, photos by Lauma Kalniņa, DEKO magazine.