Comments on: Elusive books

By: batya green-bricker

batya green-bricker — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:17:05 +0000

Shaun, we apologise wholeheartedly to you for your frustrating experience – we’ve taken note. Our new and fabulous website will launch in March that will answer many concerns.
To clarify a few points on the Exclusive Books’ store experience:
Exclusive Books has built its success on responding to its customers’ tastes, and stocking as broad a range of books as possible. However, we are limited shelf space that determines the balance of titles currently most in demand with the more obscure, classic reads a good bookstore “should” keep.
We’re not a small independent bookstore catering to the quirky high-brow tastes of a few, and we don’t pretend to be. We focus on offering the best reads to as many people as possible, on nurturing a love of reading in children, increasing access to books and on supporting and showcasing local literary talent. Our contribution in these vital areas has been significant and we are proud of the impact these have made on so many readers and lovers of books in SA. (by example, we donated over R2 million worth of books and two whole libraries to disadvantaged communities in the last year alone.) Our expansion has allowed us to open stores beyond the major centres, making books more accessible to more people. We’re careful not be the “censors” of the books we stock. We stock what the majority of our customers want. That means we cannot be “all things to all people” (which no-one can be.)

By: Blip

Blip — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:17:40 +0000

The point here is that, while I found the shop assistant clueless about Anglias, and Shaun found her clueless about someone called Iris Murdoch, she might be a total boffin on everything to do with growing cacti or doing calculus or something neither of us — or any of you — are interested in.

And, after all, this is only a low-waged shop assistant, not some independently-rich bookselling dilettante with three Ph.Ds and world fame as a tropical botanist and also for goldfish breeding and super-modelling lingerie in her spare time.

Get real!

By: Charlene Smith

Charlene Smith — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:11:01 +0000

Nice piece Shaun. I also find myself wandering into Exclusive, then wandering out with nothing. In the past I would joke that when they saw me coming they would say, ‘here comes rent’ but now… Even the Fanatics card is a rip off, if you don’t print out benefits from the web you lose them. Estoril has a marginally better selection but Amazon gets my money. I read voraciously and follow the NY Times and Irish Times book reviews, subscribe to the NY Review of Books and Times Literary Supplement. My favourite book last year was Pulitzer Prize winning, Legacy of Ashes about the CIA. Brilliant. You won’t find it anywhere here. I’m now reading a great book on Afghanistan, In the Graveyard of Empires, I doubt it will make it to SA shelves too. Thank God for Amazon for books, cds and dvds.

By: Shelagh

Shelagh — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:53:27 +0000

Kalk Bay Books is also just fabulous – and the staff are so bookish it’s impossible to walk out without a newly discovered treasure. Nice comfy couch too. And the best location in the world, of course.
http://www.kalkbaybooks.co.za

By: Shaun

Shaun — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:33:56 +0000

@Naseema – I think that’d be a good piece for the M&G to work on! I’ll put it forward: a listing of all the “independent” and second-hand shops.
@Martha – I might …

By: Blip

Blip — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:31:59 +0000

I last went to a bookshop to find a service manual for repairing my 1966 Ford Anglia. The dimwit behind the counter had never even HEARD of a Ford Anglia and her eyes glazed over when I told her about having to get the tappet clearances right. I think she’s probably busy reading utterly useless rubbish like that Pride and Prejudice stuff. Who ever needs that nonsense anyway? I doubt if there are even any cars in it. Does this Iris Murdoch have decent cars in her books? If not, she’s a total waste of time too. Unless there are a few good motorbikes…

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:23:44 +0000

@Naseema Try logging on to http://www.book.co.za, which lists most of the book events happening around SA. The community is very helpful, and should be able to help you find great bookstores near you.

Book Lounge is my favourite too: they can get you any book, usually within days, and can recommend brilliant books based on little more than “I’m in the mood for something…”. And you can leave a book registry (for baby showers etc) with them!

By: Alpheus Sipho Lukhele

Alpheus Sipho Lukhele — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:05:44 +0000

What a blog! I can’t also recall when last I was in an exclusive books store. They are so useless! Just last month, I went to the website and typed in the name of a book I was looking for by Maya called A letter to my daughter. The search could not bring anything up and I ended up buying the book from kalahari.net. I use the services latter online shop and I also get ebucks as a bonus for using them. It does not only end there as they also send me lots of special offer at least twice a week. The only thing I miss about buying form exclusive books is the discovery card cash back of 30% I used to get for shopping with exclusive. I am going to try out loot as well!

By: Naseema

Naseema — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:26:45 +0000

Is there a comprehensive website that lists all or most of SA’s bookshops, even the small and obscure ones? I can’t seem to find much online other than the major stores.

Thanx for a good read…….

By: Shaun

Shaun — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:44:18 +0000

@Lu — Not much excellent on movie circuit at the moment. Best best is Woody Allen’s movie Whatever Works. It’s on at Hyde Park. Otherwise, for silly-fun entertainment, Zombieland. Rather a dry season for movies.
@Mallix — take2′s great for DVDs, I find, less so for books and CDs — in terms of range, that is. Loot still seems best, if not fab, for that. So many of the imported items on all those sites are same as Amazon, only slightly more expensive — do they just take your order then buy from Amazon? Puzzling.