Reading Club 2000
This is the official website for Reading Club 2000 which is a free-for-all public library like no other: it lets anyone borrow and then bring back or keep any of its thousands of books.
Reading Club 2000 is an informal library set up by Hernando Guanlao outside his ancestral home in central Manila, Philippines. Hernando Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, wanted to encourage his local community to share his joy of reading. At Nanie’s Reading Club, there is no membership, borrower’s card or ID required. Anyone may keep the books or return them.
Books, believes Hernando Guanlao, need to live. And they are only alive if they are being read. Thought and effort, time and money went into making them; they will never repay it lying idle in a cabinet or on a shelf. Books need to be set free. So walk by his home on Balagtas Street in Makati, downtown Manila, and it seems books are pretty much all you'll see. Thousands of them, on shelves and in crates outside on the pavement, piled high in the garage and on the stairs, each one free to anyone who wants it.
It all began in 2000. Mang Nanie was about to turn 50 but he found himself in midlife crisis. An accountant by profession, he found himself worrying about retirement as he was almost bankrupt. Wanting to honor the memory of his parents who, as government employees, were able to gift their children with education, he gathered whatever books he had around the house, only less than 50, and placed them outside with a sign that reading was free. The rest is history.
What can you do at Reading Club 2000?
- Donate books – text books, story books, magazines, any kind is accepted. Remember, well-loved and books in good condition attracts more readers!
- Volunteer to sort out books. Mr Nanie needs help to sort books so it will be easier to store or donate them in libraries in communities outside of Manila.
- If you can bring snacks – cookies, crackers, biscuits, to share, it will be appreciated by street kids who come to the place to check out the books.
- Come with a happy and positive attitude. By being enthusiastic, your energy will be contagious to others.
- Share this website with friends and ask them to donate books and share their time at The Reading Club 2000
Where is Reading Club 2000?
View the Contact page to discover the address.
What do other people say?
Migs M: As a writer, one of my passions is reading, and I've always been protective of my books. So it was quite a
surprise for me to find out that a man named Nanie Guanlao actually set up the entire front part of the house
he grew up in along Balagtas Strett in Makati as a free library - Reading Club 2000. No library cards, no
membership, no anything.
The rules are simple: there are none. You can take a book, you can leave a book, or you can do both. You can
come once and leave with 10 books, or keep/leave a book every week. Spreading from the steps to his house and
leading all the way inside, over 500 books sit there waiting for new readers to explore their pages.
My first time there, I ended up taking home "The World According to Garp" and "2001: A Space Odyssey."
What started as Nanie's personal collection has become a repository for learning and exploration, a project
for Nanie's family, and a neighborhood curiosity. As a believer in the power of words to inspire, motivate,
and transform, I applaud Nanie and hope against all odds that there could be people like him in every street
in every barangay in every city of the country. One can dream, after all.
"A book should be used and reused.
It has a life, it has a message."