Fables Bookshop opened its doors in January 1990. We had been trading in Johannesburg for some years in the informal sector and wanted a shop.
In 1989 we were on our winter holiday in Port Alfred and came throught to Grahamstown for the day. We found a busy small city, with a university, and no used bookshop!
Fables Bookshop opened its doors in January 1990. We had been trading in Johannesburg for some years in the informal sector and wanted a shop.
In 1989 we were on our winter holiday in Port Alfred and came throught to Grahamstown for the day. We found a busy small city, with a university, and no used bookshop!
So we made our minds up on the spot. That was in July, and we sold up and moved down here at the end of that year. Needless to say we never realised that we had visited during Festival!
Thus the town was often far from as busy as we had hoped. Premises were a problem so the first year we traded above the offices of the lawyers Olckers.
Our first customer was Dr F Gess who relieved us of some fine books at very fair prices! At the end of this first year we moved into the premises where we are still located, courtesy of Mick Rushmere who I visited almost weekly in the search for better High Street premises.
In only 36 square metres we have 10 000 books with more in our store and at home. The Eastern Cape climate is hard on books which sadly deteriorate relatively quickly, especially in the older houses with no dampcourses.
It took a while to get used to this, and we nearly returned to Johannesburg that first year in desperation of ever seeing nice books again.
Fortunately we did not, and patience does reward us in our search for above average condition copies of wanted books.
We were the first book shop in Grahamstown to buy and sell secondhand textbooks for students, which we still do.
While Rhodes University with its students and academics provide many customers, it is only fully operational for eight months of the year.
Thus the National Arts Festival, Schools Fest, SciFest, Rhodes graduation, and other events of the Festival City play an important part in keeping the town busy for us.
In 2000 I started a mailing and book link list for all used book traders in South Africa. This has run as a no-cost service to the trade for 10 years and provides a forum for discussion of trade-related issues as well as a popular way of searching for wanted books for customers.
We have way over 100 dealers on there now. Then in 2002 I started the move to found our national book dealers association, SABDA (the Southern African Book Dealers Association) which today has over 30 leading dealers as members and which is currently engaged in ensuring a fair deal for book dealers who have been caught in the net of the 2009 Second- Hand Goods Act.
I have been on the committee since the inception of SABDA, as chairman for the past two years, but am taking the opportunity this year to hand over to new and younger members.
