A COMMUNITY book exchange has seen such high demand, it will be continuing throughout the summer.
In May, a Winnersh family created a local library from their front garden to keep people entertained throughout lockdown.
It started as a few novels and grew into a community library, visited by hundreds of local readers and with more than 1,500 books available.
Although Wokingham and Woodley library have reopened, the book exchange will continue into the summer too.
Jason Deane, whose children Jed (13) and Anya (11) created the exchange, said: “The exchange has remained incredibly busy – the lawn did not survive and is now a solid, dusty husk of its former self. We even had socially distanced queues at various times.
“That said, we’re loving that what started as a little project with a handful of books donated by the kids now has more than 1,500 books available to swap.
“We extended it to include DVDs as we had several requests and although this has not been as popular, it has worked well.”
And to meet demand, Jason added new bookcases and boxes, with the trio rotating the books every few days to keep stock fresh.
Looking to the future, the family are planning on finding new homes for the books when the exchange closes.
“We have had a few ideas, but are not sure yet,” said Jason.
“We will offer some of them to Jed and Anya’s school for sure, and probably invite people to take some
to keep, during the last week.
“The rest we’ll take to charity or, if we can, a specific place that could make use of them — perhaps a care home, or somewhere for disadvantaged kids.
“Any ideas are welcome.”
But for now, the exchange is still running, open from every day from dawn to dusk.
“Rock up, drop your swaps or donation in the plastic box and help yourself to some new books up to the number you placed,” said Jason.
All the family asks is that all books are left clean and in good condition.
