Enrich people's lives through books. -VALUE BOOKS-

<KEEN presents MENOS LAB. –MIDORI PROJECT–> will be held at <PROJECT LAB.> from Saturday, August 6th to Sunday, August 7th, 2022.
At that time, we would like to introduce the activities of <VALUE BOOKS>, which sells nature-related books and conducts tasting sales (CHAIRO) of Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chinese teas.

<VALUE BOOKS> is an online bookstore that has a warehouse in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture, and buys and sells books.
The free membership site offers original services for book lovers, such as a "bookshelf scan" that allows you to check the price of a book you have by simply taking a picture of the book on the bookshelf, and a book management tool "library function". Expanding.

<VALUE BOOKS> values the circulation of books.
Many of the books that cannot be purchased are sent to waste paper collection, and they are returned to paper. We are trying various ideas so that the books we receive can be delivered to the next reader, such as donating to facilities such as books and schools, and linking them to store sales in partnership with MUJI.

A new activity that <VALUE BOOKS> is working on is the production of "notebooks that were books."

About 20,000 books are delivered to <VALUE BOOKS> every day.
However, in fact, it seems that half of them have not been able to be purchased.
The books from <VALUE BOOKS>, as well as the books you put out on the waste paper collection day, are eventually transported to a paper mill and reborn as new paper. Is it possible to create value in a different form instead? It seems that the production of "notebook that was a book" was started from such an idea.

"Note that was a book"
I made paper (paper that was a book) from a book that I could not buy at Value Books and was planning to collect used paper, and made it into a notebook. It is made from paperbacks and milk cartons, printed with "waste ink" and bound with "paper staples." On each sheet of paper, little by little, fragments from when it was a book remain, and sometimes a whole character remains. The paper has a texture like straw paper and a smooth side like copy paper.