Coogee Opens Sydney’s First Free Beach Library

You've schlepped it all the way to the beach, through public transport, epic crowds and 40 degree heat. Towel down, muumuu off, you're ready to dig into that juicy pageturner... wait. No. NO. You left your book at home. You'd immediately crush the beachball of that offensively happy family beside you, but luckily, Coogee Beach has your back.

Ready for a literature-fuelled summer, Sydney's very first summer-long beach library has opened in Coogee. Free of charge and open 7am to 7pm daily, the six-metre timber pop-up library will sit on the lower promenade until the end of February 2015. As reported by the Daily Telegraph, you'll be spoiled for choice; the shelves are packed with over 1000 reads — from must-read fiction novels to magazines, non-fiction books to kids books, and even a non-English language section for visiting beachgoers. Borrowing is free and you can take the books home, with an honour system imposed — bring it back when you're done, so someone else can spend beach time with Katniss.

Inspired by similar European projects like France's pop-up beach library, the freestanding bookshelf is a welcome addition to Coogee — with Randwick mayor Ted Sang calling it Randwick's unofficial fourth library. "European countries have trialled similar initiatives before, but we’re not aware of any beach libraries of this scale and capacity in Australia," he told the Tele. "Modern libraries are thriving educational and social centres and the beach library will bring our resources to even more members of our community."

Bondi locals have seen this type of bookery before. In 2010, Bondi Beach saw a one-day installation of the world's largest outdoor bookcase by IKEA — but with the summer-long timeframe and borrowing capabailities, Coogee gets to officially claim the title of Sydney's first beach library. Beach reads, ahoy.