Books Direct Official Launch
- Kim Hunter
- Sep 3, 2017
- 2 min read
Approximate Reading Time: 3 minutes
So I was blown away by this initiative from Porcupine Press and Activate! Their goal is to make physical books available to all households at a reasonable price. Best part though is that not only are they training youth to do this but the catalogue contains ONLY South African authors. How amazing is that?
Owning books has different meaning to different
cultures and this was brought home to me during this launch. Many township or rural homes do not have access to bookshops and also cannot afford the prices bookshops charge but they are desperate to own (and read) books. Although many
people own phones, they do not necessarily have access to books on them and may even find it difficult to read on their phones.
Books Direct in conjunction with Activate! are training selected youth about the books in the catalogue and on how to sell them. These youngsters then go
into their communities to sell the physical books directly. This is a win-win situation which is why I am so excited about it.
Speakers at this event were:
1. Gail Robbins (AFNA Chairperson)
2. David Robbins (AFNA Project Advisor)
3. Clare-Rose Julius (AFNA Project Manager)
4. Chris Meintjies (CEO: ACTIVATE!)
5. Baxolise Dlali (BooksDirect Project Manager from ACTIVATE!)
6. Simon Mataboge (CEO: Bookshop Association of South Africa - BOASA)
Currently, the initiative does not have an online store but you can contact clare@porcupinepress.co.za if you are interested in seeing what is available. If you are part of my tribe on FaceBook, then you will be seeing daily posts on books from the catalogue.
Here is a sample of the quality of books to be found in the catalogue:
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