Book swaps at London tube and train stations

Now this is a fantastic idea, and a great way to promote reading. The book swap idea was brought about by Chris Gilson, a political researcher at the London School of Economics – he has set up a pilot book swapping scheme at his local station, West Ealing. The idea is to set up a network of book swaps across London’s landscape of tube and train stations, to be set up in time for the 2012 Olympics. With the world’s focus on London, this would be a fantastic opportunity to promote London as a capital of reading and literacy, as well as being the hub for the Olympic Games. Gilson was the winner of Ideas4Mayor – this was an initiative set up by thinktanks Centre for London and Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Londoners tweet their ideas on ways of improving life in London, by posing these ideas to mayoral candidates. Literacy is high up there on the London agenda and this would be a great way to promote the cause and get people involved in a communal book sharing initiative in the capital. There is no need for all these books to be discarded and left to disintegrate in landfill sites, when people can re-use them and benefit from them on such a massive scale.

Boris Johnson is on board for the scheme, and as chair of Transport for London is the perfect person to have backing the campaign, to ensure that it is implemented safely and efficiently within the London tube network. However, he has warned that it could be tricky to get Tfl on board. So it is essential to get people backing the campaign, not only to promote the initiative, but to actually get things moving and implement a working model that Londoners can use and benefit from. I am very much on side and getting involved in the process! Follow @londonbookswap on Twitter to find out how you can be of help.