About Reader's Workshop: The Lifeline Bookfest

Books, books and more books, as far as the eye can see.

That's the scene that greats you at Brisbane's twice a year Lifeline Bookfest, which I attended on Saturday. If you're there at opening time, and you're lucky enough to be one of the first people though the front door . . . well there's nothing better than two massive halls full of books.

I've been attending the bookfest for a number of years now. It has two benefits. Cheap books for the people of Brisbane, and money raised for Lifeline, a charity which provides counseling services. In fact, I attended earlier this year. Unfortunately, then, I was only four days out of surgery, which made the whole experience pretty hard, so I was looking forward to this event.


The anticipation that builds up around this event is pretty huge, and you'll see so many different types of people there. Parents, children, grandparents, students, people seaching for the one elusive book, people trying to get as many as possible. And teachers. In fact, so many teachers go each year, that they even give a special shout out over the loudspeaker.

But it's no surprise they go. Where else can you pick up good quality books for you classroom library, and teacher resources and textbooks, all under $5 each? What surprises me (and saddens me) is that I'm the only teacher at my school who regularly goes. I did run into one of my old students though, who very proudly told me that he'd moved on to really thick books now.

We're really lucky to have this event in Brisbane. The whole thing holds together on the good will of volunteers, but it's an event which allows everyone to be a reader, to leave clutching a book of their very own.

As for me, I was actually a bit more conservative this time. I had a time limit, so I had to choose well and choose fast. Still, I managed a number of excellent bargains, including Cathy Cassidy's Dizzy (completes our classroo collection), Jerry Spinelli's Loser, Morris Gleitzman and Gary Paulsen books and some excellent looking books on reading.