A new chapter at Founders Heritage Park is a space to get lost in stories - and it’s not the storage facility.
Around 100,000 donated secondhand books are stacked to the roof in there, hibernating until the park’s illustrious annual nine-day book fair.
A dedicated library titled The Book Vault hopes to change all of that by providing year-round elation for affordable publications.
Coordinator Emma Carruthers says, with Nelson’s desolate second-hand bookstore landscape, The Book Vault will be a welcoming release for the city’s bookworms.
“I’m a second-hand book buyer myself, and I really have been sad that there aren't enough options available here in Nelson to find second-hand books.
“The popularity of the Annual Book Fair at Founders is a great testament to how much the Nelson community loves to read and loves second-hand books. Founders is keeping the recycling of books going through the community, and a lot of them will probably be bought like they are at the fair, read and then dropped back off again so they keep moving.”
Row upon row in the duplicate 1876 New South Wales Bank building are fiction and non-fiction, a kid’s section with couches and bean bags and a record and CD section.
“We’ve turned the old bank safe into a dragon’s cave, so there’s a dragon protecting some of the best kids’ books in there, which I hope the kids will enjoy; it’s not very scary,” Emma advises.
“In the near future there will be creative writing classes after school for children and teenagers, school holiday programmes with creative writing, and also weekly classes for adults to come and do different aspects of creative writing. There will be reading groups and, hopefully, writers who will read from their works on a regular basis, we’re hoping to turn it into a real sort of literary hub for Nelson.”
Emma says from the 10.30am grand opening on 7 September, The Book Vault will be in session between 11am and 3pm from Friday to Sunday with 20 volunteers on the books.
