June 7, 2006
By Lucille Davie
INDEPENDENT bookstore Boekehuis in Auckland Park has been named one of 50 unique bookshops in the world.
In celebration of its 50th anniversary the International Booksellers Federation (IBF), a nongovernmental organisation of booksellers and their associations from around the world, is to publish a calendar featuring pictures of 50 unique bookshops from all IBF member countries.
"Boekehuis was selected from 734 pictures of bookshops submitted," says Corina van der Spoel, manager of Boekehuis. "It is the only South African bookshop that was selected. According to Emmanuelle Lenain, the IBF's project manager, there were many excellent entries and that the choice proved very difficult."
The two-year calendar, 50 Unique Bookshops: 2007 & 2008, will be launched at the 2006 Frankfurt Book Fair.
"We are delighted with the announcement," Van der Spoel says. "We are trying to be unique, to be special, and this confirms it." Four pictures of the interior of Boekehuis were submitted.
"We hope that we will have some of these calendars for sale later this year at Boekehuis."
Opened in 2000, the shop is located in a 100-year-old house once belonging to the daughter of lawyer and anti-apartheid campaigner Braam Fischer. It retains the cosiness of the old house, with an adjoining coffee shop set in a delightful garden. The house still has its gleaming Oregon floors, pressed-steel ceilings and fireplaces.
It stocks a range of books covering literature, politics, history – and more. "It has a wonderful collection of hand-picked books from world literature, philosophy, design, cultural studies, natural history and children's books," says Van der Spoel. "It has the biggest collection of Afrikaans books available in Johannesburg."
The Boekehuis also has a lively programme of author readings, discussions and book launches.
"It has become a valued public space in Johannesburg, where readers meet writers and ideas are exchanged," says Van der Spoel. An atmosphere has been created where readers expect "informed service".
The Boekehuis is on the corner of Lothbury and Fawley streets, Auckland Park. It is open from 9am to 6pm Mondays to Saturdays. Phone 011 482 3609 for more information.
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