Pictures speak a thousand words, and in this case, pictures from recycled magazines are helping spark many stories among men in Tauranga rest homes.

Altrusa International of Tauranga has been busy cutting motorbikes, cars and tools out of old weeklies to make books called ‘Bloke's Stuff' for diversional therapists to read to rest home residents.

Altrusa International of Tauranga members Fern Nielsen, Jean Scoullar and Denise Bean. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Each book has 12 double-sided A4 pages full of brightly coloured pictures, covering all manner of men's topics. They're also laminated for easy care.

Denise Bean, who's on the literacy committee, says the idea started as a book for dementia patients to trigger emotions and memories – and the feedback is, the blokes love it.

'It's another activity tool that they can use,” explains Denise.

'Whether we can read or not, everybody likes nice pictures that they can relate to, and it keeps that brain active.”

They've made about 20 books so far, which are on many coffee tables, on many bookshelves, at many different rest homes throughout the city.

However, Denise says they're running low on pictures for the fellas because men's mags are hard to find apparently.

'There's loads of pictures for women because there's load of women's magazine,” she says, 'but for men it's not the same.”

Altrusa International in Tauranga is a women's service group of about 20 ladies with an aim to make a difference in people's lives. That's what these book are for.

'Our aim is to get them in as many rest homes as possible,” says Denise.

Don't worry ladies, there's books for women too called ‘Girl's Stuff' and there's talk of a book for mixed gender too.

To donate second-hand men's magazines to the project, email: president.tauranga@altrusa.org.nz