Book Exchange
For several years I have looked after the telephone box at the top of Frenchay Hill, sorting the books and passing on surplus books to charity shops and a charity that sends educational books to African schools and colleges.
The Book exchange was started to enable people to pass on books they have read and enjoyed to new readers.
It is not a dumping ground for unwanted books to save going to the charity shop. In the past 2 weeks we have had hundreds of books left in the phone box and I am therefore asking you to help me by observing a few guidelines.
Please do NOT donate:
- free supermarket magazines no-one ever takes them
- damaged books – sometimes we even get books with pages missing – is there anything worse than reading a book and finding that the name of the murderer is missing??
- 30 year old guides to real ale pubs or camp sites – do the places even exist any more?
- VHS tapes
- Instruction manuals for household items
- Sets of books
- Multi-volume encyclopaedias
- Books that are not likely to attract borrowers. A few titles in the past week are “Electroplating for Amateurs”, 5 books on Urine Therapy, and “Better health through controlled fasting”
I do not want to censor books but I do remove books which are offensive. If you have inadvertently taken a book which has proved offensive I apologise - it is simply not possible to examine every book.
If the box for donated books is full, please take them home until there is room.
If you have comments or questions please ring me on 0117/9569963.
Carol Thorne
And win yourself a prize if you can be the first person to provide the correct answer, by e-mailing it to frenchaymuseum@hotmail.com, to the question: ‘What was the name of ‘Frenchay Hill’ before it acquired its present name?