Bonnierförlagen and the Big Book Exchange Day

Design: Maria Trolle-Lindgren

For the third year in a row, the Stora Bokbytardagen - the Big Book Exchange Day - will be held, this year on May 19. The event will take place throughout Sweden. Ida Torkkeli and Joakim Karlson started the project.

"We're not sure how we came up with the idea, it just kind of appeared one day," says Torkkeli. "But it was too good to let slide. In the long run, we hope that every person in Sweden takes a book in the morning and comes back with a different book in the evening, with a few new friends as well."

This year, book publisher Bonnierförlagen is helping by arranging the book exchange at the library Bibliotek Plattan in Kulturhuset in the center of Stockholm. Twelve of the publisher's authors will be taking part.

"Anything that gets people to read more books and talk about them is worth supporting we think," says Bodil Unenge, responsible for the project at Bonnierförlagen. "Especially when two such driven and enthusiastic people such as Ida and Joakim are behind it, which makes it extra fun to join."

Unenge says she hopes that she sees lots of people walking downtown with a book in their hands and that Bibliotek Plattan is completely full: "The dream would be to see Plattan full of people talking about books."

Bonnierförlagen's business idea is to spread stories, says Unenge. "The Big Book Exchange has the same idea," she says. "By helping each other we can reach more people with exciting, funny, enriching, relaxing, sad, interesting, beautiful, epic, fantastical, reality based, in other words, a whole bunch of different stories."

Bokbytardagen also has Facebook page, here.