00:00Well, this idea came from, I suppose I started 14 months ago at the Stella as the new CEO,
00:09and I saw a lot of books in our library in the office, and I thought, wouldn't it be
00:13wonderful to share those books with the community?
00:17And because I take transport every day to and from work, I was quite mindful that I
00:21spend far too much time on my phone, looking at emails, texting, and not enough time really
00:29reading.
00:30So I was excited to come up with this idea called Stella on the Go, in order to place
00:38books on public transport across Australia, so that people can pick them up, read them,
00:45take them home, finish reading them, give them to friends, or on their next trip on
00:50a public transport bus, train, tram, or even a ferry, drop that book back so that more
00:57people can share.
00:59And we're very, very interested, of course, in people reading books by women and non-binary
01:04writers to start sharing, sort of to broaden the conversation about literature.
01:12What are the little yellowy green stickers they've got on them?
01:16So those little yellow, well, they're actually green, which is our corporate colour.
01:20They say Stella on the Go, and it says, this book is free, please take it, read it, keep
01:26it, or pass it on.
01:27And then we have a hashtag and a QR code, so that if you want to comment about the book
01:32that you have read, you're more than welcome to engage with us and start building conversations
01:38with us and with the broader community through Instagram to share comments about the books
01:45that you've read and perhaps some of the new ideas that you've discovered through reading
01:51books by women and non-binary writers here in Australia.
01:55OK, so how many have you got out there so far?
02:00We've got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of books, and what's been fantastic is we
02:04had about 600 that we distributed around Australia in the first day, and then publishers have
02:10contacted us to say they've got books, can we send them stickers?
02:14And people in remote and other cities have asked us to send stickers because they've
02:19got Stella books that they would like to share.
02:22So it's actually growing in this sort of groundswell of popularity through the community
02:28where people are not only picking up the books, but they're also wanting to share the books
02:32that they have at home.
02:34I wonder whether the writers or the publishers mind, because they're making no money out
02:38of this.
02:39Well, every email that I've had so far that's from a writer has said, well done, fantastic,
02:47we're really, really excited.
02:49I suppose it's in a way a little bit like a library.
02:52I mean, we're not unhappy to have books in libraries that people can share.
02:56And in a way, this is a sort of a moving public transport library.
02:59Yeah, absolutely.
03:01And tell us what people have been saying in the feedback on Instagram.
03:05Well, Upswell, which one is one of the smallest publishers, and it's based in Western Australia.
03:12Her name is Sally Anne.
03:15She is saying fantastic, bravo, please send me 500 stickers.
03:20Someone else said they read a poetry book, which they've never read poetry before, and
03:24they've enjoyed that.
03:25So in a way, it's an opportunity for people to try books that they might not want to perhaps
03:33buy in the first instance, because maybe they don't read poetry, or they don't read graphic
03:38novels, or they don't read nonfiction.
03:41So it's an opportunity for people to take the plunge, read something very, very different.
03:48And in this time and place where the digital world is so active, it's really wonderful
03:55for people to read a narrative that perhaps engages in different stories and different
04:00ideas and gives people a different perspective on life.
