In September Streetreads - the amazing organisation bringing books to homeless readers - moved into the bookshop's basement and turned an old office into a magical book cave. Every day books are packed up and dispatched to soup kitchens, food banks and the like to bring books to homeless readers in Edinburgh who couldn't possibly afford them.

This, and Social Bite's mammoth Sleepout got us thinking about the amazing network of individuals and organisations supporting vulnerable people in our own community. Then Marie Moser of the Edinburgh Bookshop had the idea of a bookseller sleep out to raise awareness and the idea evolved so that now, In celebration of the work of homeless support groups we're having a sleep in - in the bookshop!

We won't have John Cleese for story time, but we will have stories and readings by candlelight, and hot chocolate, and let's face it, what reader hasn't dreamt of sleeping in a bookshop?!

We're aiming to raise £2000 by midnight on December 9th - so each camper is committing to raise at least £50! Every penny raised will go to supporting the day to day work of homelessness projects in the bookshop's local area - half to Streetreads, half to Souper Saturday.

The details of the sleepovers are on the bookshop's website: http://lighthousebookshop.com/event/the-big-bookshop-sleepover-fundraiser-for-the-homeless/

This page will be our hub for ALL donations connected with the night - so whether you're a sleeper, supporting a sleeper, or just want to get involved, donate here! THANK YOU!

if you are sponsoring a sleeper do put their name in the comments box when you donate!

Streetreads Story:

Rached founded streetreads after she got to know a homeless person who was a keen reader. Although food and shelter are of course essential to people’s wellbeing, the gift of a book can be just as precious. Homelessness is a complex issue, but we know that the hundreds of books Streetreads have given away are absolutely treasured.

They care passionately about each and every one of their readers.

We share Streetreads dream that every homeless person in Scotland will have books of their own. We have lots of ideas about how to achieve this, and also want to contribute to improving the literacy of homeless folk.

Souper Saturday's Story:

Set up by Mark Diver, Souper Saturday's soup kitchen is a weekly occurance, operating out of St John's. As Mark puts it "The food is a minor part  of what we do. The social interaction is what's unique about us: our guests are treated as people rather than "homeless people"; we drink tea from proper mugs and not polystyrene; we chat as equals."