The Rotary Club of Dubbo Macquarie was overwhelmed on Saturday at its book fair working bee when carloads of books were donated by members of the public.
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"About 10 carloads of books during the week and more than 20 carloads on Saturday morning again showed the generosity of the local community in supporting the Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair," book fair coordinator and Rotarian Peter Bartley said.
"We already had hundreds of new books to sort through but these donations pushed the number to well over a thousand.
" At one stage we had cars lined up around the building waiting their turn to unload - it was amazing.”
The oldest book we could identify on Saturday was an 1885 first edition novel.
- Book fair coordinator and Rotarian Peter Bartley.
Again the most popular books to come in were both paperback and hard cover fiction novels including plenty of romance books such as Mills & Boon, according to Mr Bartley .
There were also plenty of cooking, gardening, Australiana, children's, military, travel, transport, animal and joke books.
But Mr Bartley said the next biggest category behind novels were the self improvement and do it yourself books.
For the first time the club is taking its time to identify and keep first edition, antique and other collectable books of which two full boxes were collected on Saturday.
"The oldest book we could identify on Saturday was an 1885 first edition novel, " Mr Bartley said .
"The club is also supporting the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Foundation and is aiming to undertake 100 good deeds during the current financial year period.”
Mr Bartley said the club had more than 3000 books sorted, categorised, priced and cling wrapped for next year's book fair in May .
The next working bee will be held after Christmas and donations of books in the meantime can be left at Meals on Wheels at 74 Mountbatten Drive, Dubbo during business hours.
Michael Egan was a local accountant, loving husband, father and a charter member of the Rotary Club of Dubbo Macquarie when he died in 2007 aged 49 years after a battle with cancer.
Known as an avid reader it was decided to honour his memory by starting a book fair.
Rotarians Lorna Breeze, Peter English, Lawrie Donoghue, Judy Jakins, John Stonestreet, Peter Bartley, Jen Cowley and John Curley were at the working bee.
