What is a Community Book Swap?

A Book Swap is an event where you can bring along books that you no longer want and swap them for books that you do! Fiction, non-fiction, kids books, adults books, recipe books. Any genre as long as it’s in decent enough condition for someone else to enjoy.

At the Great Ashby Community Centre our Community Book Swaps are free events. There is no entry fee and we don’t charge for any books that you want to take. (Of course, we never say no to cash donations which go towards running the community centre!)

All we ask is two things:
1. You either return any books that you have read (and have finished with) or pass them on to someone else to read and enjoy.
2. A Book Swap works best when you bring back the books you have finished reading. By taking books for schools, nurseries and other organisations, we don’t get them back for other people to enjoy. So please be fair to the ethos of the event and only take enough books that you (and your family) can reasonably read before the next one. (And no selling the books that you have received for free from our Book Swap either!)

All books at the event have been donated by the community. Don’t worry if you don’t have any to bring, come and pick one up anyway. Perhaps you can donate next time.

Our first Great Ashby Community Book Swap was held in May 2021 and was an instant success! We try to hold at least three per year. In previous years these have been in the Spring, Summer and late Autumn.

In addition to the books, we have had a pop-up tea room, selling tea, cafetiere coffee, soft drinks and cakes to enjoy at the event with friends or family or to take away. All cash donations as well as proceeds from the sale of the drinks went to the charity that runs our centre. For the first ten events the cakes were made or provided by the Trustees of our charity. During 2025 we were joined by three different Great Ashby-based bakers who each held a stall selling their delicious cakes and bakes. For 2026 we have a new plan for the pop-up tearoom in Hall 3, so watch this space for more details nearer the time.

When is the next event?

To make sure that you don’t miss announcements of any future events, be sure to follow our Facebook page.