WHERE TO DONATE YOUR BOOKS (OR FIND SOME TREASURES YOURSELF) IN METRO MANILA

Are you curating your books and want to share the ones you no longer need with others?

Whether you have used or new books, here are some places within Metro Manila where your books might end up as treasure for others, or where you might find treasures yourself.


photo from The Bookstop Project’s Facebook page

BOOKSTOP MANILA

According to their Facebook page, “The Book Stop is a pop-up library that encourages reading and a passion for books and promotes the sharing of ideas through the redistribution of books.”

You are free to browse and borrow books here, as well as leave books you wish to share with others.

Since it’s a pop-up project, it keeps moving location, and as of writing, they are currently based at Asean Garden (CCP Complex). But…the good news is, they now also have a permanent stop at Plaza Roma, Intramuros! Yey!

PS: We’ve been to their stop in BGC, and it doesn’t seem like they lock their library, so I guess as long as Plaza Roma or their current stop is open, they are open, too.

PPS: The design is really nice! You can actually sit on top of the library so you can read. Best to go late afternoon if you plan to stay and read, the sun can really be harsh and uncomfortable.

Follow them here:

Facebook
Instagram
#TheBookStopPH

PAPEMELROTI

Papemelroti has a lot of branches in different malls, but my favorite would be their main branch for this: their leave a book, take a book cabinet. Their note says: Please take one book at a time. You can leave as many books as you want. It’s just right outside their store.

PAPEMELROTI (Main Branch)
Korben Place
91 Roces Avenue
1103 Quezon City,
Philippines

Tel. (632) 375-1069
Store Hours: 08:00 AM – 08:00 PM (Monday-Saturday), closed on Sundays

PS: The cabinet for book donation is outside, so I think it’s open even on Sundays. I guess just call ahead (during their opening hours) to be sure.


photo from CNN Philippines’ article about this [by JL Javier]

READING CLUB 2000 (THE LIBRARY WITH NO RULES)

Of all these, Reading Club 2000 has got to be my fave. I’ve heard about this a long time ago, but somehow, I couldn’t find the address. I just knew it was in Makati. Thankfully, it kind of became viral in some Facebook groups recently and so I had a chance to do more digging, and found the information I wish to share with you.

From their website:

Reading Club 2000 is an informal library set up by Hernando Guanlao outside his ancestral home in central Manila, Philippines. Hernando Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, wanted to encourage his local community to share his joy of reading.

Guanlao started his library in 2000, shortly after the death of his parents. He was looking for something to honour their memory, and that was when he hit upon the idea of promoting the reading habit he’d inherited.

I saw my old textbooks upstairs and decided to come up with the concept of having the public use them,” he says. So he put the books – a collection of fewer than 100 – outside the door of his house to see if anyone wanted to borrow them. They did, and they brought the books back with others to add to the collection – and the library was born.

“At Nanie’s Reading Club, there is no membership, borrower’s card or ID required. One may keep the books or return them.”

“I encourage sharing with their neighbors when they are done”, Nanie explains. One wonders what is to stop anyone from taking all the books? Nanie shakes his head and assures us: “The books have multiplied”. he has no idea how many books are in his possession, but there are easily 2,000 or 3,000 on the shelves and in the boxes stacked outside his front door. And that’s before you move inside, where books are rapidly encroaching into every available space. You can hardly get into the front room, the car has long since been moved out of the garage, and books are even stacked all the way up the stairs.

 

http://www.readingclub2000.com/images/gallery/guests.JPG
Mang Nanie Guanlao’s Reading Club 2000 (photo from the Reading Club 2000 website)

WHERE TO FIND AND DONATE:

Reading Club 2000

Contact person: Hernando Guanlao (Mang Nanie)

1454 Balagtas St. Barangay La Paz
1204 Makati
+63926-645-7641
+63915-902-7657

EMAIL: ReadingClub2000@yahoo.com

Facebook
Website

OTHERS:
CNN Article About Reading Club 2000
More information (and map) from BrokeTourist.net

 

 

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