Last weekend, I attended the Cape Town Book Sale where book sellers offered as much as 50% off on a wide range of titles. The book sale ran all weekend (16-18 June) at The Avenue, V&A Waterfront and offered you the chance to buy two kinds of tickets online or at the door. The Beat the Crowd (BTC) tickets went for R125 offering people the chance to buy books before everyone else from 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM and Standard tickets went for R25 from 10:30 AM.
Highlights of the #CTBooksale:
One of the biggest highlights about #CTBooksale was that the books were brand new and on sale at cheap, discounted prices. Most of the stalls priced their books from R50 – R100, but some of the stalls even had books for as low as R20! As you all may already know, I have no issue with buying second-hand books, but I know some people are quite turned off by knowing someone else owned it before them. That was definitely not an issue at this sale as the books were all in very good condition.
Munira from A Touch of Starlight managed to get loads of books from #CTBooksale too. Check out her post about her book haul here!
I liked that the book sale’s venue was situated quite centrally in Cape Town and had a great backdrop of the Two Ocean’s Aquarium:
Offering the chance to buy BTC tickets was definitely a great decision by the organisers. At the next sale, make sure you buy BTC Tickets because I had one and managed to find some great books that I’m sure would’ve been gone had I bought general tickets. Check out how quickly the venue filled up as soon as people with standard tickets started entering:
Kids under 12 entered for free and could watch a puppet show at different times throughout the day. On Saturday, Bargain Books offered people the chance to fill a box of books for R500. About 14 books filled a box and their books were priced from R50 – R100 (now that’s a real bargain!) The sale also had a special on Father’s Day (18 June) where dads entered for free!
Personally, the biggest highlight was all the different stalls under one roof. It catered for lovers of all genres! David Philips (New Africa Books) had some great children’s books in African languages. Woodsworth Books and Bargain Books had a wide range of books from different genres, Hargraves Library Service, Wilstan Book Suppliers and Caxton Books had smaller selections but offered good quality coffee table, adult crime-fiction and local non-fiction books. Books 24/7 had loads of children’s and cook books on offer.
Tips for the next Book Sale:
A big issue with this year’s sale was the ticket prices. Some people chose to air their thoughts on the event’s Facebook page claiming the BTC tickets were too expensive. I agree that they definitely were. Perhaps they should have reduced the BTC tickets to R100, given that R125 was the price of 3 books!
While the venue was central for some, The Avenue was wayyy too small for the amount of traffic it pulled. As soon as the general ticket holders rocked up, the venue was packed! I could hardly walk a straight line both downstairs and upstairs! I think the organisers should definitely choose a bigger venue for the next sale, given the popularity of the first one.
Organising the books by genre, with signage should certainly be considered for the next sale. Most stalls just packed different books from different genres together and some stores that separated books by genre had no signage. At the Woodsworth Books section, I found Veronica Roth’s Divergent with the non-fiction books, and autobiographies with the fictional novels! I absolutely hated having to search through all the books to find the ones I wanted as it took quite some time. (Luckily I had BTC tickets!)
My #CTbooksale Book Haul:
What good is going to a book sale, if you don’t buy books? I bought these at the #CTBooksale:
I’ve been a fan of Matthew Syed’s writing ever since I read Bounce two years ago. Black Box Thinking focuses on the ‘surprising truth about success’ and the reasons some people don’t learn from their mistakes. Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile is a book which builds on Taleb’s previous books such as The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, which I’m currently reading. And of course, as a Liverpool FC fan, I absolutely love Luis Suárez! I couldn’t resist getting his autobiography for cheap. JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a book I bought for my girlfriend who loves the Harry Potter series.
Overall, I think the #CTBooksale was a great sale! I’m definitely excited for the next book sale!
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