On Friday, April 17th from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., you can choose from hundreds of beautiful second-hand books at great prices at Shopland Opava and support a good cause at the same time.

For each book sold, the organizer will donate 20 CZK to the account of the Moravian-Silesian Society for the Protection of Animals.

And be careful! You can meet the writer Vojtěch Mokrý on site, who will offer his new book, The Journeys of the Kaban, and will be happy to sign it.

Come choose your new favorite book and make yourself and the animals happy!

Read more detailed information about the event and the entire project below in the press release.

Press release:

Old books also help in the Opava region. Instead of going to the collection center, more than half a million have already been donated to a good cause.

Books do not belong in the trash. This is one of the rules that govern the Knihomilové project, which saves older books from being thrown away and helps where they are needed. Thanks to organizing charity Book Markets, one of which will soon take place in Opava, the Knihomilové have already managed to distribute more than half a million crowns to shelters and handicapped children.

The Knihomilové will arrive in Opava with their Book Market on Friday, April 17, when the premises of Shopland Opava will be transformed into a large second-hand bookshop for one day. Writer Vojtěch Mokrý will be presenting his book Cesty Kabanu at the event. Twenty crowns from each book sold at the Book Market will go to the account of the Moravian-Silesian Society for Animal Protection.

“We are not a classic second-hand bookshop. Selling books is not our priority, but it is an important part, because other activities, from storage to operating a book rescue service to supporting young authors, need to be financed from somewhere,” says the founder of Knihomilů, Igor Dostál.

He travels all over the country with the so-called Book Rescue Service and picks up books from people who would otherwise throw them away for free. “We are usually called to estates, but we often also go to libraries or second-hand bookshops. We travel thousands of kilometers with the rescue service every year. This year, we have already been to Prague, Vsetín, Hořice or Hodonín for books, for example,” Dostál calculates.

Instead of going to collect books, they help

They then sort, catalog and store the imported books. Some of the books will be given away, children's books will mostly go to orphanages, some of the books will go to the Book2Go library run by Knihomilové in Zlín, and the best ones will be offered on the internet and KnihoTrzy. “I never wanted to be (and I insist that I still am not) a bookseller, so my job is always something else and the project is just a hobby. Book fairs came about completely by chance and naturally grew into their current form. We now organize them annually in a number of cities from Karlovy Vary to Znojmo to Ostrava,” adds Dostál. From each book sold, 20 crowns (which is sometimes half the price) go to a good cause. Thanks to this, Knihomilů have managed to distribute more than half a million crowns among handicapped children, animal shelters and small non-profit organizations.

It is a win-win-win combination

“I am happy that the project is working as it should and everyone is satisfied. On the one hand, there are people who got rid of books with the knowledge that we will find another use for them, on the other hand, there is the family of a sick child or a shelter that will receive much-needed financial support, and on the third hand, we are. We are primarily pleased that people in the Czech Republic are still interested in reading, and that thanks to seemingly written-off books, we can help where it is needed. In addition, children also come to the events to get books, and this gives us hope that we will remain a nation of Book Lovers in the years to come,” says Dostál. In addition, the Book Lovers also invite regional non-profit organizations to their events, offering them free space to present and sell books, which is another benefit.

“We still have a lot of plans for the future, and I hope that we will manage to find suitable partners for their implementation. You can do a lot of things with books – and last but not least, you can read them,” concludes Dostál with humor.