By Dominique Tassell
Stanthorpe book lovers can now enjoy a book exchange in town, courtesy of Cherry Lane Nursery.
Morwenna Horsley says she’s accumulated a huge collection of books and decided she wanted to share them with the community.
Morwenna says she came up with the idea for the book exchange after renovating her house and being left with a spare oven.
She says the oven was sitting there waiting to be taken to the dump, and she decided to put it to better use.
Book exchanges, or little libraries, need to be watertight to prevent any damage to the books, and often people will use old appliances such as fridges to house them.
Morwenna took to Facebook to ask locals for their help coming up with a slogan.
‘Cooking the books’ has proven a popular suggestion, but Morwenna says no slogan has been settled on just yet.
She says she’s going to leave whiteboard markers out with the book exchange so people can write on the oven.
Morwenna says she hopes eventually the book exchange will have “a bit of everything” but for now it has lots of fiction and a fair few gardening books.
“I’d like to see all kinds of books,” she says.
She has had a few customers zoom in on photos and make requests to hold novels, so turnover is looking good.
Morwenna says she doesn’t know of any other book exchanges in town, and as there are no dedicated book stores in town there’s certainly an opening for more book exchanges.
Morwenna says locals have definitely taken to reading since the start of the pandemic, with high demand for reading materials.
The Stanthorpe Library will also be closing its doors on 12 August, due to construction on the new premises.
From 29 August, locals can pick up reserved library books from the Stanthorpe Administrative Building at 61 Marsh Street, with no collection onsite.
Locals have slammed this decision, with one local stating it’s “totally unacceptable”.
You can find Cherry Lane Nursery’s book exchange at 60 Sugarloaf Road.
Make sure to replace any books you take from the exchange with new ones, if you can.
Locals can also find a book exchange just out of town at the Ballandean General Store, courtesy of Ballandean State School.
