It may still be months away, but the Dubbo Macquarie Rotary Club is already urging people to donate books for the Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair.
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On Saturday the rotary club packed their first pallet for the book fair, with a whopping 47 boxes of books already having been donated.
Co-ordinator Peter Bartley said 36 boxes were full of fiction novels, six contained children's books, three had biographies, there was one for Australiana books and another for cooking.
"We're really keen for new donations. Google has killed off encyclopedias so we don't want encycolpedias and we can't sell Reader's Digest or old magazines, and we don't want any old or battered books," Mr Bartley said.
"We'd like to sell everything but this is our seventh year and we're realising there are some things we can't sell."
To date, the number of books was up from previous years, Mr Bartley said, most likely due to more awareness.
There will be a few extra additions to this year's book fair.
"We got some funding from Dubbo City Council for soup kettles for all of our functions, so at the book fair we'll be selling soup. We're also looking at seeing if we can run a colouring-in competition for children and having them displayed in the hall," Mr Bartley said.
While the book fair was a fundraiser, Mr Bartley said having the soup and the colouring-in competition was a way to have more of the community involved.
"The proceeds will be split between the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Royal North Shore Hospital. It's in honour of one of our founding members Michael Egan who passed away from cancer when he was 47," he said.
The Royal North Shore Hospital was where Mr Egan was treated, Mr Bartley said.
This will be the eighth Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair.
"There's usually a rush on the day we set up but if people have any donations over the next couple of months they can contact me and I'll let them know what to do with them," Mr Bartley said.
Anyone with books to donate can contact Peter Bartley on 0488 057 363 for more information.