![Thousands of books will go for sale at the Braidwood Book Fair on the June long weekend. Picture supplied. Thousands of books will go for sale at the Braidwood Book Fair on the June long weekend. Picture supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/190291005/5f087e46-0169-4bb7-b3cb-79b060ba8da4_rotated_270.jpeg/r0_0_3024_4032_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Thousands of books will go for sale at the Braidwood Book Fair on the June long weekend.
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The fair will be held at the National Theatre on Wallace Street, opposite the bakery and Bendigo Bank between June 9-12.
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The ever-popular event has been running for some 30 years now, says volunteer Majorie Lemin.
She's one of 10 volunteers tasked with collecting and organising the "astounding" number of donations the group receives each year.
"We ask for the donations to come in all year round, and they come from all over," Ms Lemin said.
"People ring up from Canberra, Goulburn, the coast, and even Sydney. We've also had donations from people coming through Braidwood, who drop the books off. They just come from everywhere."
The Book Fair was originally a small fundraiser held on Sundays for the Anglican Church.
"As far as I know it was just a couple of ladies who were looking for some way to raise money," Ms Lemin said.
"They decided to have a little bookstore, and it grew from there."
It's been held at a number of venues over the years, including the "beautiful" old Sunday School Hall.
"We moved up to the National Theatre about eight years ago and it's just gone gang busters ever since," Ms Lemin said.
She said the event was popular because people came for all sorts of reasons.
"You get some people who use it as a lending library. They donate their books in January and then come back to replace them when the fair is on," Ms Lemin said.
![Thousands of books will go for sale at the Braidwood Book Fair on the June long weekend. Picture supplied. Thousands of books will go for sale at the Braidwood Book Fair on the June long weekend. Picture supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/190291005/03ee0cdd-7e9b-4cb2-8316-89a5c132b778_rotated_270.jpeg/r0_668_3024_4032_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"And you also get people who are moving, who are emptying out and cleaning up after someone has passed. Those sort of donations come in all the time."
The books rarely sell for more than $10 and each year there are treasures to be found.
"We get a lot of good books, and if we think they're too good to be putting out for the fair we will put them aside," Ms Lemin said.
"We have a May Gibbs book at the moment. It's a 1941 edition, so it's very rare. We are setting up a way to sell them online."
The group has plans to set up an online sale for rare books.
"Because people walk around with their phones and they look them up online to see what they're worth and what they can sell them for," Ms Lemin said.
"It happens. But we got them for nothing and people didn't want them so it's lovely if they can go to someone who wants them.
"We collect and bank all the money to different community groups. This year we had volunteers from various groups come and donate their time and then we donated the money to their groups," she said.
Ms Lemin has volunteered since moving to Braidwood from Sydney 20 years ago.
"It's just a great community event. We're always astounded by the support we get, it's lovely. And it makes the fair even better," she said.
"We try to make it as happy a place as we can for people to come and spend time at."
![Thousands of books will go for sale at the Braidwood Book Fair on the June long weekend. Picture supplied. Thousands of books will go for sale at the Braidwood Book Fair on the June long weekend. Picture supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/190291005/8079259e-ac7d-4145-945a-8e7b8bf7f300.jpg/r73_192_2941_3106_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The fair will be held at the National Theatre on Wallace Street, opposite the bakery and Bendigo Bank between June 9-12.
It will be open from 9am to 4pm on the Friday through Sunday and then 9am until 2pm on Monday before closing the doors.
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