The new online secondhand bookshop staffed by St Luke’s volunteers is aiming to build its stocks to 30,000, with everything from interesting old titles to the latest paperback fiction.
"We’ve already got 4000 of our stock online, and we have space for thousands more in our warehouse," St Luke’s Anglicare marketing and development manager Sam Hawkins said.
"We want to build to having 30,000 constantly in stock."
Mr Hawkins said St Luke’s recently partnered with Brotherhood Books, which set up the online bookstore, to extend the program into regional communities throughout the Loddon Mallee and southern New South Wales.
Setting up their sorting facility in their Kangaroo Flat warehouse, this new St Luke’s enterprise began in February with volunteer Maree West receiving and cataloguing donated books.
Since then, the volunteer base has increased to around 10, and this week, St Luke’s is inviting people both to donate books and to volunteer at the sorting centre.
"You have to love books," Mrs West said.
"We have a wonderful time seeing all the different books that are brought in here, then organising them for sale."
The range of books changes all the time, as the volunteers load the information onto the website.
They assess the state of the book, and price them according to how recently it was published. Most paperbacks are around $5 with specials in the bargain bin down as low as $2.
Delivery is via courier (unless to a postbox, via Australia Post) with three to six books costing $10.15 delivery, and each additional book $2.50.
As with any bookshop, the online store classifies titles according to subject, such as cooking, politics, crime or self-help.
Mr Hawkins said they are inviting Bendigonians to a bookdrive and volunteer barbecue at the donation centre, 66 Collins Street Kangaroo Flat, on Sunday August 21, from 10am to 1pm.
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