I love to read, but when I go around town looking for books, they are often either unavailable or a little too expensive,” says Anisha Joshi, a 17-year old student and one of the founders of The Book Barter. “Whenever I failed to find a book in the stores, I would ask around and borrow it from my friends. And that is how the idea for Book Barter came along.”  

The Book Barter is an initiative kick-started by Anisha and her five friends—Aryaan Shrestha, Priyasha Kansakar, Priya Pradhan, Sabir Khagi and Sneha Joshi—during their SLC break last year as a mere book swap between the friends. Today, the venture, which takes place once in every one and half months, boasts an ownership of more than 250 books and dozens of loyal customers. 

Kathmandu’s (and Nepal’s) dearth of rooms to read is well documented. Only a few libraries independent from educational institutions exist in the Capital, and with memberships expensive and choice of books slim, bibliophiles often have to resort to buying the books that they want to read. The situation has become progressively worse after the 2015 earthquake took a huge toll on many of the city’s biggest libraries. 

Which is why The Book Barter is refreshingly simple but still very effective. This book exchange enables readers to swap books ranging from thriller, romance, teen-fiction, dystopian novels to self-help books with the Barter for just Rs 150, regardless of how many books they choose to barter. You bring in books you have read and share them with others, while walking away with titles you’ve wanted to read but haven’t had the chance to yet. The money raised from the exchanges is then donated to government schools. 

“There are few online book-stores from where you can order books at reasonable prices, but their approach is very commercial. We wanted to start something that is community oriented and would be more accessible to students,” says Priya Pradhan. “Everybody has books they’ve read and are laying around in some corner of their homes. We thought it would be great if we had a platform where those books could be swapped,” adds Anisha. 

Though the six friends were passionate about the idea, the first few months were demanding. “When Anisha came up with the idea, we all loved it, but the lack of space to host the barter held us back for some time. When we figured that we could use an unoccupied space at my house for the purpose, we kicked off the barter immediately,” shares Aryaan.  

“A lot of work went into planning, collecting and publicising the initial pool of books,” adds Sabir Khagi, talking about the initial hurdles. “At the outset, we didn’t have many people attending our events. There was a time when we actually stood out on the streets of Dhobigat, holding up the book barter signs and posters to introduce our venture.” 

Co-founder Priyasha Kansakar confesses, “The first few months were tough, but they taught us a lot of lessons. We were all young kids with little exposure in the real world.” She adds that Suzita Gurung, the proprietor of Kataksha, a library café at Maharajgunj, has played a big role in the success of the book-swap. 

The library café is currently the official host and store space for the book barter. “We held a few barters at Aryaan’s place and a few more at Le Sherpa Farmer’s market, but hosting our event at Kataksha has been the most lucrative,” Kansakar adds. 

This cordial partnership with Kataksha was serendipitous. Anisha had originally visited the café to inquire about the A-level tuition classes that they provide. When she casually shared about her book barter venture with the proprietor, Suzita immediately offered to host the venture in one corner of the café last October. Ever since the Book Barter has been taking place in the same venue. 

Suzita shares how she has seen the book barter grow in terms of readers and books. “I remember the first time they held the barter at my place; only ten people showed up during the course of the day. But, they were not discouraged by the number, they were excited and content even back then.” Now, although the number of people attending the barters is still relatively small, they have a few new customers every time. She adds, “The perseverance they show towards their work is really admirable.”

The book barter which has collected almost Rs 40,000 over the course of a year has already donated a portion to the Community Children’s Development Library in Sachal, Lalitpur.  

“Sabir and I volunteer at the organisation every week. While there we noticed that the kids required books and stationery supplies. So, we donated around 100 books, both Nepali and English, and stationery supplies to them from the barter money,” says Priya. She adds that the team plans to increase the number of schools, in the coming days. 

Although, by all means, the initiative is still in its early stages, the gains it has made are commendable, particularly given the young ages of the founders. And while it might take some time for the venture to reach critical mass, one thing the founders have on their hands is time, and a growing collection of books to kill it with.