Love Books downstairs in the popular Bamboo Centre in Melville shows why boutique bookstores are booming worldwide – they make buying a book an enchanting experience. It is one of those treasures you stumble upon, but once you do you cannot wait to go back.

Love Books

Small and independent, with a great selection of books, Love Books is a one-stop bookshop for discerning book lovers. Catering for adults and children, the books have been carefully selected and the shop is a comfortable, imaginative and great place to spend some time browsing.

Started by designer Jaci Jenkins and bookoholic Kate Rogan (who produced the book show for Jenny Crwys-Williams at Talk Radio 702 for many years), Love Books adjoins the iconic Service Station restaurant that has been a Melville feature for over a decade. It means you can have your coffee and cake and eat it while losing yourself in the magic of the books and ambience of the bookshop.

The Death of the Bookstore

One of the great tragedies of the modern era has been the death of the bookshop. First the independent bookstores were pushed out of existence by the arrival of mega-retailers like Barnes & Noble internationally and Exclusive Books in South Africa. They just could not compete on price given the huge discounts offered by publishers to the giants.

Then came the Internet with Amazon, Kalahari, digital books and e-readers and suddenly the behemoths are in big trouble. After their stock tumbled 19% and sales even further, Barnes & Noble is looking for a buyer to bail them out. 

‘The giant bookstore chain, whose superstores once struck fear into the hearts of independent booksellers everywhere, put itself up for sale this month, rendering it the corporate equivalent of the remaindered books it sells at a discount,’ commented James Stewart in The Wall Street Journal. ‘The company said it made the move because its shares are undervalued, but to me there was an air of desperation about it.’

Just Desserts

Stewart goes on to analyse the fall of Barnes & Noble and places most of the blame on the growth of the web, which he says the large book chains did not take seriously until it was too late. As an aside he relates how Barnes & Noble had long before lost him as a customer because of poor, impersonal service. That, for me, is the clincher rather than the Internet – the web merely delivered the just desserts.

For years I have avoided big mall based book retailers because they have that air of the supermarket about them. All the fast moving consumer goods (read chick-lit, dick-lit) were in gondolas and fancily arranged piles to grab my attention; while the good stuff was buried at the back. And trying to get help was a nightmare because the staff were mostly students and the management from business schools; with only a handful of them knowing the difference between Shakespeare and the guide to pass your driver’s licence.

There was just no love for books. So when the Internet came along it was very easy to switch my money from an uncaring retailer to a faceless one on the web.

The Emergence of Boutique Bookstores

But what gives the lie to the idea that the Internet has killed the bookshop is the explosion in recent years of high-service boutique bookshops. These not only offer the touch and smells of a bookstore, but the personalised attention that is so rare today. One of the best of these anywhere is Love Books.

Kate has years of experience with books and a thorough knowledge of the industry. This enables her to handpick every title. But what she adds, what a chain can never give, is a deep passion for books.

Eclectic Style

Bamboo is a great designer centre and a bookstore is a perfect fit. Then there is the eclectic style brought to the interior of Love Books by Jaci. The art books are on skew shelves; beautiful illustrations by The Motel adorn the walls; and branches emerge from the ceiling, as does crazy lighting.

But what will have you coming back is the personal attention (and wonderful books). Kate will find out what you like reading and make suggestions, and if the book is not in stock she will get it for you and deliver it to your house. Or you can just browse while enjoying a coffee or a glass of Joostenberg wine from her family’s estate.

There is wireless access for adults and magical storytelling sessions for kids every Saturday at 10am. I love books, which is why I absolutely adore Love Books. I am going to be a regular. See you there.