Who Wants to Build a Book Swapping Community with Us?

Today is World Book Day! In case you didn’t know, this day was inaugurated in 1995 and founded by UNESCO to celebrate all things associated with reading, literacy, publishing, and copyright.

So today seemed like the perfect timing to make a suggestion that’s been on the backburner at the jingkids office for a while now – a book swap! As we all know in the capital city, English books are sadly a rare commodity. I’m still reeling from the discovery that the Capital Library of Beijing doesn’t let you borrow English books home, and while I enjoy Roundabout book fairs and found a few cool bookstores here, I’ve still not been able to satisfy my son’s voracious reading appetite without breaking the bank.

A book swap seems like a great solution to this little problem! Our jingkids parentboard has also echoed our sentiments so we know the expat community will love this idea, but we’re still unsure of how the mechanics would work. We have a few ideas such as asking our amazing expat community to offer their homes for a on-location book swap where a small group of participants can bring a few books to exchange with the host’s inventory. We’ve also thought of striking a partnership with a cafe downtown that would serve as a convenient drop off location where we could bring our books and exchange with others on the shelf there.

We’ve got the good intentions and need your help – if you are interested to swap books with members of the expat community, or are willing to open your home for a book swap gathering, or know of a small business owner who would welcome book lovers with open arms, join our WeChat group and let’s get swapping!