OKEHAMPTON Library is one of the 16 Devon County libraries to have received an early delivery of mystery parcels for adventurous readers.

The Christmas goodies will have readers guessing until they get home, when a selection of brand new books wrapped in Christmas paper and placed in a box, will be picked as a mystery package.

The book is then stamped out as a regular library book.

Adult lending services manager Colin Bray said: 'Staff start to collect up suitable new books which arrive in their branches several weeks beforehand.

'They wrap them in Christmas paper and encourage readers to take them home as a surprise read —something they might not otherwise have chosen.'

Mr Bray said the aim is to encourage the reader to be brave and try something new.

He said: 'Most of us are rather set in our ways and stick to the same kinds of read, so this is a fun way of widening people's horizons.

'There's no guarantee the book will be to their liking, but each year readers tell us they have discovered authors or tried genres they would never have found for themselves.'