Joël Baptiste’s association, Cultural Trips, placed more than 250 books on the shelves of the Alès nautical center.
“On the idea of “reading at the beach”, we extended the concept of “reading at the swimming pool”, explains Arnaud Lassallette, director of the Alès nautical center, Le toboggan. It’s always good to mix sport with culture. We already had the lockers, we said why not set up a reading corner?
Virginie Topie, pool manager, managed the setting up of the small library in liaison with Joël Baptiste, president of the Voyages Culturels association. “It’s interesting to offer books to the public. On Wednesdays, we have 300 children who come with their parents, brothers, sisters, and they have to wait. It’s still more fun if we can keep them busy.”
The operating principle of the books installed upstairs, next to the stands, is quite simple: “We take, we read, we bring back the books. We can even drop off others.”
-Joël Baptiste installed the first 250 books this Friday: “I like the name of this operation: “Immerse yourself in reading”. With Virginie, we worked on the choice of works. We included local authors, children’s books, comics… We put a small stock ; we will see how it will evolve. Well, I have 70,000 books in reserve…”
“This is a first step, assures Arnaud Lassallette. I would like to have other shelving as close as possible to the pools, downstairs. And why not outside this summer?
