Bee and Danny’s story
For me, there’s never been anything more relaxing than getting stuck into a good book. But when I ventured to find a book club in my sunny seaside hometown Margate, Kent when I moved here in 2010, there were none to be found. So, I started one.
Since 2012, Bee’s Bookshare has met regularly, bringing a community together to share the books we’ve loved, loathed, can’t put down and can’t get into. Every month, we each take away a new read and have a social time while we’re at it.
Any type of reader and any type of book is welcome. Danny, who has been coming to Bee’s Bookshare since it started, had only read one book before joining, a Dan Brown novel. Now, he reads dozens of books a year, of all genres and is an avid and life-long reader.
“Taking that step to go to Bookshare, the array of books that I’ve read now: I love going into a bookshop and going ‘I’ve read that, read that…’ and that’s all down to Bookshare.”
Danny, book club member
Forget reading a set text… we’re all about devouring anything and everything, swapping a variety of reads – some we all know, some we would never have tried otherwise.
In 14 years, we’ve shared nearly 2,000 books, met up over 100 times, welcomed hundreds of people and raised over £4,000 for local charities through book initiatives such as Bee’s Book Bundles – curating and delivering a selection of second-hand reads for a donation.
Many friendships have formed through Bookshare and we’ve built a wonderful, welcoming community. So much so that we have a sister Bookshare along the coast in Deal which has been running for 12 years, and in 2026 we’re expanding in East Kent and hoping to inspire Bookshares to form across the country during the National Year of Reading.
Discover more at www.beesbookshare.co.uk.
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