Here’s a story that we are proud to be part of. There are various initiatives from local people to get book cases into tube and rail stations.
Reading a good book makes time spent on a train just whoosh by. But some mornings you may just not be that organised and forget to pack one – or have just finished one and not chosen your next – or are a bit broke and have to go easy on extra expense until the end of the month.
You may, of course be snowed under with books at home and keen to share your favourite reads.
The obvious thing is to bring book hungry commuters together with book-heavy donors. So, congratulations to Lynn Winton, who has done just that at East Finchley. Lynn approached our local manager Amanda Walker asking for Prickett & Ellis sponsorship. We were delighted to be involved and the project took off.
Here’s Amanda checking out the newly installed oak bookcase which has had lots of donations already.
Station staff member, Sanj, told me that people are really enjoying the new addition to this charming, plant filled space. He reported that someone was particularly thrilled to find a French language learning book – so he could practice his verbs all the way to the office.
The ‘Books for London’ initiative began in 2011. https://booksforlondon.org.uk/
Here’s a little advice to anyone who is thinking of doing something similar in their station:
To set up a book swap the main thing you need is persistence. Station managers are very busy people and often have a number of stations that they look after, this means that an email asking about the potential of having a book swap on their station is not top of their priority list. You have to keep pestering them until they agree to a meeting and then you are in. As long as a space can be agreed, and you have to be flexible on this, then the rest is easy.
More on this story when the project is officially opened and celebrated by a well-known local author in the coming weeks.
