Are you a bookworm? Do you like the feel of a traditional book? Are you looking for a new author or book & would enjoy hearing about it first-hand from someone who has just read it? Well if you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any one of the above questions The Brussels Bookswappers Club is for you!
The Brussels Bookswappers Club meets once a month, usually the fourth Wednesday of the month, at ‘Le Chapelier Fou’ – a lively café/restaurant in Boitsfort – to swap books, DVDs and latterly audio CDs. Membership is free and the club is run by Karen and a team of volunteer ‘Meeters & Greeters’. On average, we attract between 30-60 ‘members’ per month with both familiar and new faces joining every time! We have over 350 members on our database, spanning some 15 different nationalities. We accept most genres of literature, although until recently the majority of books have been paperback contemporary or classic fiction. Our stock of books is constantly evolving – dependent on the titles and languages deposited by members each month. In addition to fiction & non-fiction we now have a strong children’s section as well as some comic strips, DVDs & CDs. Currently we have books in the following languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Italian, Swedish and the occasional Greek, Polish and Russian – we hope to continually improve and expand what’s on offer! Karen reserves the right to sort through the stocks from time to time to ensure that only good quality books in a reasonably sound condition are displayed. Discarded books usually find their way to a charity, school or doctor’s surgery. On balance we hope that over the course of swapping books with us you will take away, in terms of numbers and value, what you put in.
Following the huge success of last year’s Yuletide Bookswap for children we were able to persuade the owners of Le Chapelier Fou to remain open all day when the Club meets in order to launch a new separate Bookswap for children before the regular evening event for adults & older kids. After a fairly quiet start on January 23rd things started to get busy & by 18.00, despite freezing temperatures, we had welcomed families from Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, England, Ireland & New Zealand! Half an hour later we were ‘meeting & greeting’ both new & regular members from all over the world – including Norway, Chile, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Poland, the States! At one stage we were about 65 gathered together to swap books & exchange personal news & reviews! The restaurant was packed & a local pianist, Raoul, entertained a hard core of ‘winers & diners’ for the rest of the evening! The Brussels Bookswappers Club is truly a multicultural gathering of people from all walks of life joined together by a common love of books.
So if you’d like to pop along with your (grand)children, pupils… to one of our Bookswaps aimed at the younger reader please note that you are most welcome to join us from 16.00-18.30 throughout our 2013 event calendar. Books will already be on display for adults so you yourself can already swap books in the afternoon if you are unable to join us later in the evening. A special tea-time menu is on offer from the café during the afternoon and the bar & restaurant are of course there to tempt you to linger before or after the evening Bookswap – should you so desire!
Dates for 2013 are: February 27, March 27, April 24, May 29 (Mad Hatter’s Tea Party to celebrate 3 years in Boitsfort), June 26, July 24, August 28, September 25, Ocotber 23, November 27, December 18. If you wish to receive a monthly invitation please send your coordinates to the Club via: BrusselsBookswappersClub@gmail.com or consult our website’s Diary.