A LITERAL truck-load of secondhand books will be up for grabs this weekend as the Rotary Club of Mount Gambier hosts its 2019 Book Fair.
Thousands of pre-loved books have been collected for the service club’s annual fundraiser, taking over the Mount Gambier City Hall tomorrow and Sunday.
Book fair chairperson Alan Richardson said this weekend’s event was “without a doubt” the biggest yet.
“We have had to hire a truck to transport the books because there was too many to fit in a car,” Mr Richardson said.
“All of the books are second-hand and will be sold at cheap prices with a lot only being one or two dollars.”
Mr Richardson said all funds raised would be donated to the Australian Rotary Health Foundation.
“October is Mental Health Month with this week being Mental Health Week so we thought it was an appropriate charity to put money towards,” he said.
“The foundation is doing a lot of great work on mental health and are looking into researching issues and how people are able to surpass challenges.
“Mental health is a large topic for many Australians so this is out way of providing support.”
With a mission to recycle and re-use, Mr Richardson encouraged people to not throw books away into landfill, with the book fair allowing people to uncover old favourites or new books to read.
“We have some great quality books and a lot of novels we think people will enjoy reading,” he said.
“People are then able to bring them back next year to recycle and resell for the year after.
“Hopefully they can keep going round and around rather than them getting dumped into the recycling.”
Mr Richardson said the event also encouraged reading in the Limestone Coast community.
“In past years we have donated funding towards the organisation Books in Homes, in conjunction with the Mount Gambier Library,” he said.
“It has also financed new books to be purchased for children so they can have books accessible in their own home as sadly some Mount Gambier households do not have any books.
“Kids may grow up not seeing or reading any books at all so we hope this event allows them to purchase some and take them home to read.”
There will a variety of categories for sale including royalty, railways, automotive, science and technology, drama, crime and much more.
Mr Richardson thanked people who donated books to be sold at the event, which also included a palette-load from Sydney through the Books in Homes organisation.
The event will be held at the Mount Gambier City Hall tomorrow and Sunday from 9am.
