Hazel’s Downtown hosts book swap
Book lovers gathered at Hazel’s downtown Sunday afternoon to exchange books, ideas and share a coffee or two.
Hazel’s Downtown was packed full Sunday thanks to a book swap suggested by a loyal customer and book fanatic.
The process is simple: St. Joseph residents came by Hazel’s with a book they love but are ready to pass along to another book lover. In exchange, they get to grab a different book to bring home and cherish for free.
“A lot of our customers have asked for a book swap, and we have a customer, Rebecca, who really enjoys putting these on,” Hazel’s Coffee Owner Heather Mitchell said. “And she approaches us to do them at our location. So, yeah, we’re going to start trying to do, I think, every other month or so just to get people out excited about reading.”
The customer, Rebecca Martin, said the book swaps started with about five people exchanging books. However, the book swaps have grown to include dozens of St. Joseph residents of all ages finding new material to fall in love with.
“I love books. I have a lot of books. I have too many books,” Martin said. “Some that I’ll never read again. And I knew that I would never read again. And instead of (donating), I figured that friends and family, we could swap them out. Maybe read something that we wouldn’t have thought of before.”
From children’s to young adult to mature books, every genre was welcome. After swapping books, guests got to discuss their love of their former books and excitement for their new ones.
This was not the first book swap for Hazel’s Downtown and won’t be the last. For future events hosted by Hazel’s Downtown, visit the coffee house’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/hazelscoffeecompany.
