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Announcing the first ever Big Book Swap – a unique charity event which allows participants to share their passion for reading whilst contributing to The Pelican Post, an amazing organisation which aids literacy in developing countries by providing a quick and easy way for people to send children’s books to schools in Africa. This event will take place on Wednesday 20th January from 5.30pm until 9.00pm at The Royal College of Physicians in Regents Park, a great centre of learning and home to some of the country’s oldest and most valuable books.

The premise of the event is simple – bring along a copy of your favourite book, inscribe the cover with a message for your potential “swapees” to tell them why you think it’s worth reading – if it inspired you, made you laugh out loud, shed a tear, or even changed the way you looked at the world. Leave it behind for someone else to discover and find your own next great read! Spend a couple of hours browsing the selection of books, sit down and have a read, chat with friends over a drink from the bar, and listen to our guest speakers talk about their own passion for reading and how books have influenced and moulded them as individuals.

As this is a fund-raising event we will also provide ample opportunity for people to delve into their pockets and donate to The Pelican Post – most notably with a fantastic raffle offering some great prizes. We will also tell you how you can make a tangible contribution to a child’s life by logging on to The Pelican Post website (http://www.blogger.com/www.pelican-post.org) and purchasing a book for a school chosen by you.

The Big Book Swap was really a very simple idea which came to organiser Kim Dunsmore on the bus home one night. After six years of taking an interest in what fellow commuters were reading without ever seizing the opportunity to discuss the book in question, Kim decided to set up an event which would allow strangers across London to come together and share the books which have shaped their lives. Aware that The Pelican Post was simultaneously trying to raise awareness of the literacy issues affecting Africa’s schools, Kim decided to encompass a fund-raising element into the event and The Big Book Swap was born. With co-organiser Kim Thomond firmly on board, The Big Book Swap team hopes to launch a successful initiative which will be replicated in cities across the country and even further afield (we’ve already had a potential organiser contact us in Brussels!), with numerous literacy charities benefiting from our participants' collective love of reading.

So, come along to The Royal College of Physicians on Wednesday 20th January anytime between 5.30pm and 9.00pm prepared to inspire and be inspired and help our inaugural Big Book Swap go off with a BIG BANG!

Visit www.bigbookswap.co.uk for more details.

- A special thank you to Kim Dunsmore, organiser of the Big Book Swap for the blog post.

Picture: A stack of books, with thanks to anna_t for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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