The Book Lounge is an independent bookshop in the Eastern Precinct of Cape Town City Centre. We opened in December 2007 and have had the most wonderful response. Talk to our experienced and passionate staff about the book you are looking for or feel free to grill us on what we’ve been reading recently. We pride ourselves on the many interesting book related events that we host – check out our events page for details of what’s coming up. Or just come and enjoy a delicious cup of coffee while relaxing in the Lounge area and perusing our eclectic selection of books. Bring your children to the best kids section in town and if you know of a 3 to 8 year old who likes a good story, every Saturday morning at 11.00 is story time at the Book Lounge. We have a wide and unusual range of books, and if you’re looking for something we don’t have in the shop, we will do our utmost to get it for you. Enjoy the site and please drop us a mail if you have questions, queries about books or comments to share.
Open Book Festival: 7th-11th September 2013
Book your dates for Open Book now! The festival will kick off on Saturday the 7th September and finish on the 11th September. The Fugard Theatre will once again be the hub with the much loved indie book shop, the Book Lounge, playing a close second.
The year has been going extremely well for us so far with some wonderful writers confirming their attendance. Internationally acclaimed Ian Rankin has confirmed his attendance later this year, as have Patrick deWitt, Kamila Shamsie and newcomers, Damien Brown, Marli Roode and Taiye Selasi…more news about participating writers soon!
Open Book is more though than 5 days in September. Our mentoring project has been running since earlier this year and has been immensely rewarding. Central Library is hosting us this year and staff there have been unbelievably supportive of the entire process. There are in the region of 20 students involved so far, but we see new faces each week. Our mentoring programme at Matthew Goniwe Memorial High School kicked off on Wednesday 20 September and is something we are very excited about.
We are in the process of identifying the school for the 2013 Library Project and should be sending out news about that in the near future.
We will be travelling to France later this year to join our partners in St Malo. Étonnants Voyageurs runs from the 18 – 20 May and several writers and Open Book staff will be travelling through to France for the festival! We are delighted to be part of a festival where South African writers will be promoted to an international audience.
If you would like further details about Open Book 2013, please contact Frankie (frankie@openbookfestival.co.
Regards
The Open Book Team
Open Book is organised in partnership with Equal Education, The District 6 Museum, The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts, The Townhouse Hotel, The Fugard Theatre, Central Library, and sponsored by Leopard’s Leap, Absa, Penguin Books, Pan Macmillan, Random House Struik, NB Publishers, Jonathan Ball, Book Promotions and Oxford University Press.
