IF you ride the Newcastle light rail, your journey is about to get more literate.
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Local social enterprise Secret Book Stuff has been contracted by Newcastle Transport to leave its pre-loved books on the light rail.
Owners Amy Lovat and Laura Kebby have asked five "secret book agents" to leave a stash of "guaranteed good reads", wrapped in 100 per cent recycled paper with a note on carriages to encourage commuters to read then leave the book for others to enjoy.
READ MORE: Local business stories in Business Hunter.
Secret Book Stuff was founded as a personal project in 2017 by Ms Lovat, a freelance writer and creative writing lecturer at the University of Newcastle.
"I had wanted to do a random act of kindness initiative and I was moving overseas and I had 1000 books on my shelves and thought it was a good idea to get rid of some, so I started to wrap them in recycled brown paper with twine and stamp them and write a note and leave them around town," she says.
She grew a loyal social media following and abandoned her move when she got a job at the university. When she met her partner Ms Kebby, a fellow bookworm and book seller, things ramped up.
"We began doing markets, now it's a business instead of a random act of kindness moment bleeding money," laughs Ms Lovat, adding that the pair sources books from charities, donations and their own collections.
Secret Book Stuff hand-picks books for customers who either want books themselves or wish to gift them to a special person. The business chooses a book based on information it receives about the recipient.
For every book or book box or bundle it sells on its website, the business donates a secret book as a random act of kindness, typically donating it to hospitals and schools and non-profit organisations. For each book box it sells it gives $5 to Share the Dignity, which gives personal hygiene products to women experiencing homelessness, poverty and domestic violence.
In 2019 its official charity partner is Books 4 Outback and Ms Lovat and Ms Kebby will soon travel to remote NSW to deliver books to schools.
