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Meet the book ninjas on trains

A book club on trains has inspired a novel about words, ideas and love. Genevieve Gannon travels with the book ninjas.
'Books on the Rail' leave books on public transport to share the love!
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Nobody knows the unifying power of books better than two best friends from Melbourne who built a friendship, then a community and finally a writing career on the love of the written word.

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After penning a debut novel together, founders of Books on the Rail, Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus, are so close they joke theyโ€™ve almost melded into one person. Although their friendship didnโ€™t start out that way.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjdsTauAmpu/?hl=en&taken-by=aliroseberg

โ€œIt wasnโ€™t the perfect meeting,โ€ Michelle says of the first time the two crossed paths, as children on a family holiday in Marysville in country Victoria.

โ€œAli only had eyes for my older sister who was much cooler.โ€

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However, after that inauspicious start, Michelle moved to Aliโ€™s primary school, where the two discovered a shared passion for reading and became close.

โ€œWe were the kids who went to the elective writing club in Year 4 and all the book clubs in the library. We were the book nerds,โ€ Michelle admits.

โ€œOur lives have been very much intertwined and weโ€™ve been lucky. Weโ€™ve always shared a love of books and we have a very special friendship.โ€

โ€œWeโ€™ve known each other our whole lives really, and books have been a big part of that,โ€ Ali agrees.

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As adults, the kindred spirits spread their love of books far and wide with their Books on the Rail project. Their story of love and literature started two years ago with a well-thumbed copy of The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons.

Ali and Michelle stuck a note to the front of the paperback โ€“ โ€œTake this book, read it, then return it for someone else to enjoyโ€ โ€“ then placed it on a train seat and sent it out into the world to be found by someone they hoped would derive as much pleasure from it as they had. With that simple act, Books on the Rail was born.

The premise is simple: Ali and Michelle (and now a loyal network of โ€œbook ninjasโ€) circulate books on public transport to encourage people to read more, to try different genres and, as Ali puts it, โ€œto bring the paperback backโ€.

The Books on the Rail concept came about because Ali and Michelle were concerned the quiet daily journey to and from the office, which had once been the domain of newspapers and books, was losing ground to Twitter, Candy Crush and Angry Birds.

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โ€œIt used to be such a special time that we both cherished,โ€ Ali says. โ€œWeโ€™d noticed, more and more, that people were looking at their phones or iPads or even working on their laptops and not having that special camaraderie with one another when you notice someoneโ€™s reading a book that youโ€™ve just read. We really cherished that reading time. We really were passionate about bringing the paperback back.โ€

So they began to stash novels and non-fiction on the Frankston line train in Melbourne, along various bus routes and anywhere else a lonely commuter might be in need of something to read.

โ€œWe try to keep it as diverse as possible because the romance of it and the randomness of it is that you donโ€™t know who is going to stumble across the book,โ€ Ali says.

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The result was so much more than the proliferation of literature โ€“ furious literary discussions sprung up, along with new friendships, both online and in the real world.

โ€œSomeone tweeted that they had dropped a book and then saw that someone was sitting in front of them reading that book three days later,โ€ Ali says. โ€œPeople have been meeting on Twitter and on Instagram and we have quite a big community now.โ€

Along with their book ninja work, Ali and Michelle hosted book club events on public transport.

โ€œPeople have formed quite a few friendships through those,โ€ Michelle says. โ€œItโ€™s a special little community. Interacting with authors and readers and lovers of books is very special. The generosity of the book ninjas continues to amaze us and is incredibly humbling.โ€

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After two years of playing literary fairy godmothers, Ali and Michelleโ€™s lives have changed a lot. Authors and publishers now regularly reach out and send them books. The industry is thrilled to have two patrons of the written word who are so devoted to spreading stories across the city.

One meeting with Simon & Schusterโ€™s Director of Publicity, Anna Oโ€™Grady, proved particularly auspicious. Anna asked if they had ever considered turning some of their ninja stories into a book.

A loyal network of โ€œbook ninjasโ€ now circulate books on public transport to encourage people to read more!

The writing process was intense and intensely collaborative. If Ali and Michelle thought they were close before, it was nothing compared to how they felt when they finally handed over their manuscript.

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โ€œIt feels as though weโ€™re more like one person at the moment,โ€ Michelle says.

The result of their work is a very Melbourne literary romantic comedy called The Book Ninja, about a young bookseller who leaves a trail of literary breadcrumbs on Melbourneโ€™s public transport in a bid to find love.

โ€œWe used to joke about how great it would be if somebody found one of our books and through that, happened to meet somebody and develop a romance. That was our goal,โ€ Michelle says.

The Book Ninja is now available in bookshops and copies are travelling about on trains. Meanwhile, Ali and Michelle are co-writing their second novel. So the love of words will fuel their friendship for some time to come.

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