subject: Bookstores In South Africa [print this page] South Africans love good food; they love spicy food and gorge on steaks and are very particular about how it is made. They also love to travel. Reading books is another passion of South Africans. If you are visiting South Africa and are a book lover, there are many good bookstores that will surely pique your interest.
Heres an insight into bookstores in South Africa. The best thing about the bookstores is that they will welcome you every time you step into it. You will find books of all kinds, for all ages and in all languages here. You dont buy your book and come back home, the bookstores encourage you to stay, explore, sit and read and then buy the books you like.
Usually the bookstores are compartmentalized into neat sections which will house different genres of books. This is very useful for customers as finding books become easy for them. The different sections in which a bookstore is usually divided are:
Childrens section- in most of the bookstores the childrens section is kept near the end of the bookstore or in any other place where there is sufficient space. The children can have this space for themselves and they wont bother other customers. Parents can also sit with their kids and browse through the books. A good childrens section boasts of books like fairy tales, short story books, motivational books, school books and others. Further these books are divided into - fiction and non-fiction books and are kept in separate shelves for convenience.
Adult section- again the section can be divided into different parts - fiction and non-fiction. The fiction books can again have a separate section for classical books and contemporary books. There can be separate section for romance, thrillers, detective stories, or tragedies, etc.
The non-fiction part can include books of different topics inspiration, religious, management, business, finance, cookery, auto biographies and biographies etc.
Movies, educational CDs- most bookstores keep movies and educational CDs. Its convenient for the customers as they dont have to separately visit a CD shop for buying movies or educational CDs.
Stationery items- many bookstores also offer stationery items like notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, sticky notes, markers etc. Some bookstores in South Africa have a shop for light snacks as well so the customers can grab a few munchies and have them while reading or browsing the books.
Regional and translated books- there can be a separate shelve for regional books and another for translated books.
Bookstores can also have other sections and they vary from one bookstore to another. Another important aspect of any bookstore is its staff. Since staff has to deal with books all day they have good knowledge about books and they assist you in your browsing and also solve your queries.
In South Africa you will find large chain book stores as well as smaller and independent bookstores which usually offer a specialized book selection thus catering to a particular type of customer
