A De Beauvoir Town author has taken it upon himself to champion the new community book area at Haggerston station.
The station’s staff and volunteers started the community book area to create a space for people to share and exchange books.
Author and charity volunteer Hayri Zafer, 72, noticed the book area on his journey home two weeks ago and is in no doubt it will benefit the area.
He said: “One person takes a book, another one leaves a book, it creates a sort of community spirit based purely off of someone’s generosity and desire to learn.
“I deeply believe that collective action makes people more effective and happy in day-to-day life.”
The variety of the donated books means readers can explore genres or topics they may not usually have chosen, encouraging a diverse literary intake.
Zafer used his own book While Running Away as a prime example. The semi-biographical book is about a man having to flee Turkey due to its political unrest.
He said: “Most people don’t know what’s going on in Turkey and the political conflicts that are going on over there.”
He added it would be a nice change to see people choosing to spend their commute reading rather than scrolling endlessly on social media.
By using donated goods, the book area supports environmental sustainability by giving old books new life and reducing waste.
While Zafer is more than grateful for the book area, he believes there are still issues which need addressing like the dent in one of the shelves.
He noticed that people have been taking more books than they are donating, leaving the shelf mostly empty as well.
Zafer said: “TfL should put up some notices to encourage people to bring their old books to the station instead of leaving them in a bookshelf to collect dust.”
His hope is that if the Haggerston book area is successful, it could spread to the rest of London’s Underground stations.
Zafer said: “If you’ve got a journey and you have nothing to do, pick up a book and see where it takes you.”
All image credits: Jacob Antigha
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