Guid Reads: Scots bookshop 'accidentally' raises £40k in 24 hours

Guid Reads, which is based in Alva, has now raised more than £45,000 thanks to a single tweet.

The bookshop wrote to its followers: “Help - landlord potentially selling our shop - we could buy it for £35K - I panicked until I thought - is 1000 people investing £35 to have their name written on the outside of the building and receive a free pre-loved book every month for a year silly?”

Help - landlord potentially selling our shop-we could buy it for £35K-I panicked until I thought-is 1000 people investing £35 to have their name written on the outside of the building and receive a free pre-loved book every month for a year silly? #booktwitter #kindnesstrain

— Guid Reads (@GuidReadsAlva) August 31, 2021

The post quickly went viral, receiving thousands of likes and shares. Ruth Galloway, the shop’s founder, set up a fundraiser underneath, and the donations began pouring in. One person alone donated £5000.

Now Galloway is looking to buy the premises, something that “wasn’t even on the radar, let alone a possibility” just one day before.

She told The National: “I don’t know how you accidentally raise more than £40,000 from a tweet that was just a ‘hmmm, I wonder if I could do this if people would think it was a good idea’. But that’s what’s happened.

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“It’s just mind-boggling. I feel like somebody’s going to pinch me and wake me up. One way or another - we’re going to own the building!”

Galloway’s next problem is an unexpected one. Having opened their business during lockdown, no banks were offering business accounts.

“Now this is going to sound really silly, but the online banking that we went with has got a £10,000 limit on the account. At the time I thought ‘that’s not going to be a problem’, but it’s a problem!

“So I have a lot to do over the next few days, let’s put it that way. But that’s a very good problem to have.”

Not least of the other tasks ahead is sending thank you notes to everyone who donated, and looking at getting their names on the business’s wall as promised.

However, many people who donated asked for their books to go elsewhere.

Galloway explained: “Lots of people are asking us to donate their books to other places, schools, women’s refuges, old folks’ homes. We will just keep putting as many books as we can out into the community as a thank you to these people who have donated.”

She went on: “The biggest thing of all for me is, when we own the building that’s going to free up the rent we pay every month and we’re going to be able to put so much more back into the community because of that. That for me is the biggest thing.”

Eve, Guid Reads' youngest volunteer, likes to take advantage of the books while overseeing the shop

Guid Reads hopes to build on the charity work they’ve done through lockdown - including helping foodbanks and individual families, and reaching out to refugee groups - with the extra funds owning the premises will free up.

“We’re just talking about all the things that we can do, the sky’s the limit really,” Galloway says. “Wherever there’s a need, we will try and help. Apparently, anything is possible!”

Community work is part of the foundation on which the store was founded. No books are priced, instead everything is donation based. This allows Guid Reads to be open to everyone, regardless of what they may be able to afford.

“I think people thought I was a bit daft when I said that at the beginning,” Galloway says, “but it’s working and I 100% stand by that.

“Reading rounds your world view, and it’s an escape as well. It’s really important and price shouldn’t be a barrier to that.”

Guid Reads' fundraiser is still open and can be donated to here.