{"id":148880,"date":"2025-06-01T07:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T07:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/148880\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T07:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T07:25:11","slug":"more-than-300000-books-up-for-grabs-at-the-founders-book-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/148880\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 300,000 books up for grabs at the Founders Book Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book lovers lined up for hours before sprinting to get in first as one of the country’s largest used book fairs got underway in Nelson this weekend. <\/p>\n

Christchurch bookshop owner Paul Edwards has been coming to the Founders Book Fair in Nelson for more than 10 years. <\/p>\n

He and others arrived well before the 10am opening time on Saturday. <\/p>\n

“I arrived about quarter past eight but some people have been here since quarter past seven,” Edwards said. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Christchurch bookshop owner Paul Edwards is searching for hidden treasures on behalf of others. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

He said he was searching for hidden treasures on behalf of others. <\/p>\n

“I find a book and someone’s been after that for three years or something and I find it I go ‘fantastic, fantastic’. So it sort of makes your day.”<\/p>\n

People lined up for hours in the cold before the gates opened to one of the largest book fairs in the country. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Taup\u014d book dealer Neville Clout said he and his wife travel down every year and have a plan of attack. <\/p>\n

“Well I’m quite a fast runner so I’m considering I will probably mow down the people in front of me,” he joked.<\/p>\n

\"Taupō<\/p>\n

Taup\u014d book dealer Neville Clout says he and his wife have a plan of attack. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

As the gates finally opened, dozens of people made the 100-metre sprint, large bags billowing in the wind, to get in the door first. Many came prepared with shopping bags, boxes and even suitcases. <\/p>\n

Volunteers collect books all year around and sort them twice a week in order to stay on top of things. <\/p>\n

Founders Heritage Park’s David Finlay said everyone in Nelson knows about the fair. <\/p>\n

“I think people almost set their calendars to the fair, to be honest. We’re asked all year round, right after the last fair, ‘When is the next fair?'”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman proudly shows off her haul from the Founders Book Fair. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

He said the fair \u2013 one of the largest of its kind in the country \u2013 usually raises around $100,000 for the museum.<\/p>\n

Around 300,000 second-hand books are up for grabs as well as records, DVDs, puzzles and more. <\/p>\n

“I though last year was the biggest we’ve been but there’s definitely more this year,” Finlay said. <\/p>\n

The Founders Book Fair runs until June 8. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Book lovers lined up for hours before sprinting to get in first as one of the country’s largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,63725,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-148880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-nelson","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114606920431156376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}