Booked out without a doubt
THE Rotary Club of Dubbo Macquarie Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair is returning for their 12th year on Saturday and Sunday, May 7 and 8 in the Centenary Pavilion at Dubbo Showground.
Book Fair coordinator and Rotary club member, Peter English said he is extremely thankful to the Dubbo community for donating an abundance of books over the past eight months.
Along with his team he’s been processing and sorting the books out into genres including war, Australiana, children’s books, coffee table books, biographies, fiction, and others.
“We’re really excited for this book fair, and we hope the public are too,” Mr English expressed, telling Dubbo Photo News over 20,000 books have been donated for the fair.
Being in the Centenary Pavilion eases the process of handling books as Mr English and his team have access to forklifts and other machinery.
“Believe it or not, but books are heavy,” he laughed saying the Rotary members are getting old, so they appreciated access to the machinery.
“I remember when we first started and we were lifting the books, putting them on trollies, rolling them around all day – it definitely aged me,” he reflected.
He shared that people often recycle books from what they purchased the previous year for someone else to enjoy.
From recycling to encouraging literature in children, Mr English expressed the aim for the book fair is to promote education and stimulate a passion for reading in younger ages.
“We want children to foster the art of reading,” he explained, saying there’s no demographic the fair is specifically aimed for, rather it encourages people of any age to visit and find an interesting book.
“We know that elderly people love their books,” he explained, the tactical nature of books and newspapers is incomparable to cellular devices.
Prices range from 50cents – $5 for each book, depending on the genre and style.
Last year the club donated more than $15,000 to two charities, Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Dubbo support group and the Bill Walsh Cancer Research facility to honour the legacy of Michael Egan.
Charter member of the rotary club, Mr Egan sadly passed away due to cancer and Mr English said the club is very proud to support the selected charities.
Over the past 12 years, the club has donated more than $120,000 to charities, Mr English told Dubbo Photo News.
“When we started it was a bit slower of course, but the community has really built the annual event up into a large turn out,” he said, sharing his statistics from last year which recorded over a thousand people through the doors, a turnout he says is astounding, but shows the love people have for reading.
“My favourite books are biographies because I like reading about what people have done,” he expressed, noting that what has happened in real circumstances is scarier than anything fiction based.
“Knowing what people have gone through, whether it is an experience or a trauma and seeing them achieve something is inspiring,” he said.
The fair will be open from 8am-4pm on Saturday and 9am-1pm on Sunday.
During the last hour on Sunday, people are invited to bring boxes and wheelbarrows and make their best reasonable offers.
For further information contact Peter English on 0417885088.