BOOK SA – News

Alert! Cape Town’s motorists whizzing down Main Road between Rondebosch and Newlands are catching a flash of colour out the corners of their eyes, where none was before.

Ok, so in fact there always has been a flash of colour on that particular stretch opposite Groote Schuur – the presidential estate, not the hospital – but this is a particularly flashy flash, the flashiest, in fact, that we’ve seen down the years, as the shops have changed hands and the shopfronts sprouted new designs.

In this case, the source of said flash is a freshly-painted shopfront done in high-gingerbread-house style, which, as it turns out, is a new independent bookstore called Folio Books / Folio Boeke.

Mother City Living reports:

I’m a big fan of independent bookstores (and independent shops in general). Generally, I find that the larger, more generic bookshops are rather impersonal, and though they have large quantities of books, I can rarely find the more interesting books that I’d like to buy. That, and their prices are so often rather high.

I much prefer smaller, less-fully stocked bookshops that have an eclectic variety of books, some new, some second-hand – the kind of shops owned by people who love books, and have plenty of knowledge and enthusiasm to share.

So, I’m rather excited to see that there’s a brand-spanking-new one that’s just opened up in my ‘hood, literally ten steps away from my favourite coffee haunt. What bliss!

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Here’s wishing Folio all necessary staying power! I look forward to popping in.

Photo courtesy Mother City Living