Dive into a world of literary gems as Wagga's annual book fair loom

The event will see thousands of second-hand books, collected and sorted over the course of the last 10-months, will fly off the tables and into the hands of punters this Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19.

The 2023 Book Fair was a great success and the Rotary Club are "extremely" excited for the 2024 edition, which will be keeping the popular 'Fill a Bag for $50' offer.

"It's all hands to the pump between now and Friday to get it all set up," Book Fair coordinator Vicky Donoghue said.

"We hope we will have the same crowd, if not better than last year. And last year, we think we had about 2500 people through the door."

There was around 50,000 books, 1000 DVDs/CDs, a quantity of vinyl records, sheet music and a large assortment of 'feature' books available in 2023.

"I think we have even marginally more stock than we had last year," Ms Donoghue said.

"To the point that we are looking at ways and means of getting more than our normal semi trailer load."

There will be a great range of books on offer at the fair, from children's to adult fiction and more.

"We have an outstanding collection of young children's books and chapter books for young readers," said Ms Donoghue.

"If people are early enough and quick enough, they can save an awful lot of money than buying them new.

"The thing that we love about that, is if the kids read the books and then their parents re-donate them to us, and other kids can read them.

"Our adult fiction this year, I reckon, most of the books are in as new condition and when you think that you can probably get a dozen of them for $50. That's good value."

Since its inception, the fair has enabled the Rotary Club to fund more than $650,000 worth of community service activities and last year saw a record amount raised.

"It's always good if you can beat a record," said Ms Donoghue.

"But as long as we come close, we'll be very happy."

The raised funds will go towards the Rotary Club's local projects.

"We support a lot of educational things in town, we support various scholarships at schools and at the university and the conservatorium," Ms Donoghue said.

"We also support local things like the Women's Refuge, and other areas of needs that just appear ... we can jump in and help when it's necessary.

"We also support international projects that we have going, where we help projects in East Timor and we're looking at re-commencing the projects that we have going in India. They sort of have been on the backburner since COVID, but we're looking at at reviving them."

The Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga's 2024 Book Fair will be on Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19 at the Kyeamba Smith Hall.