Bridge Books – New kid on the block

In the gorgeous building at 85 Commissioner Street, you will find a new special kind of bookshop, Bridge Books. Only four months old and already on Bookmark’s must-visit list.

Where: 85 Commissioner Street, corner Harrison Street, Johannesburg
Since: 1 June 2016
Contact: Griffin Shea, 079 708 4461
Website: bridgebooks.co.za
Business hours: Monday – Friday: 09:00–17:00
Chain or independent: Independent

First of all, Bridge Books operates a bit differently to the regular bookstore. How exactly do you differ from other bookstores?

When customers walk in, the first thing they’ll realise is that we shelve our books
backwards compared to many stores. Since we’re in downtown Johannesburg, all our books are assumed to be African. About 75 percent of the store is African titles shelved by genre, and only our international fiction corner is marked as separate. It’s a small thing, but it’s a way of asserting our city’s identity over the books.

The other thing customers find is that we don’t separate out new and used books. Everything is shelved together, even when we have new and secondhand copies of the same title. That way people can find what they’re looking for, and find a variety of price points. All our books are online, and we offer drop-off and collection within the CBD.

Behind the scenes, we operate quite differently because we also function as a distributor to the dozens of booksellers in the CBD who don’t have direct access to major publishers and distributors. So a vendor selling books on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, for example, can WhatsApp us, request a title and collect it here. We sell a lot of remaindered books this way, but also a lot of new books – especially politics and biographies.

Bridge Books has a very meaningful motive and vision that drives it. Can you tell us more about Bridge Books’ mission and vision?

Johannesburg is a great city that is amagnet for talented people from acrossSouth Africa and across the world. It’s fullof smart and creative people who like toread. But because our city is young anddynamic and changing quickly, it’s hardfor national or international companies to adapt fast enough to keep up. So we end up with a lot of readers who can’t find the books they want. And we also have publishers who need new ways to get their books into readers’ hands. So that’s the bridge we’re trying to build.

What makes Bridge Books’ bookstore experience special?

For one thing, we’re in a gorgeous building at 85 Commissioner Street, which was originally built as the South African headquarters for Barclays. Honestly, it’s worth visiting Bridge Books just to see the space. We have great foodie neighbors downstairs at the City Central food hall. And we have books that frankly you won’t find everywhere else.

How and why did you get into the bookselling business?

It was a happy detour. I worked as a journalist for most of my career, but then took time off and went back to school. I did the creative writing program at Wits to work on a young adult novel, and was amazed at how hard it was to find South African books – even ones published just a couple years ago. Around that time, the debate over “decolonising” literature reignited, and one of the criticisms was the lack of bookstores downtown and in the townships.

So one day I thought I’d go look for a place to set up a bookstand around Park Station. Two million passengers go through every week day, so I figured some of them must want a book. But then when I got to the station, I found dozens and dozens of people already selling books – on the sidewalk, in markets, at hair salons, inside nappies stores. Hooray, right?

As part of my research at Wits, I had an interview at Jacana with Bridget Impey, and I mentioned how cool it was that all these booksellers have set up across the city centre. She sent me away with about 20 books to try to sell, and it’s grown on its own from there. I sold those 20 from a backpack, but soon needed a suitcase and eventually filled the boot of my car. That’s when I thought maybe it’s time to find a shop space. Urban Ocean’s property popped up in my Facebook feed one night, and by the end of the week I’d fallen in love with 85 Commissioner St.

How important do you believe it is for bookstores to include all languages of the community in their book selection?

For children’s books, I believe strongly in encouraging reading through home languages. It’s the best way to get kids used to seeing and hearing words, by telling stories in the languages they hear every day at home. So we always stock children’s books in every language I can find.

For adult books, it’s complicated. Little is printed so little is purchased. I’m open to ideas on how to hijack that vicious circle and turn it into a virtuous one that would promote all our languages. Maybe like coders do hackathons, we could organise a Meetup and develop a translationship.

Bridge Books is also busy setting up the African Book Trust. Can you tell us a bit more about this trust?

The African Book Trust is another way of getting books into communities through libraries – neighbourhood libraries, school libraries, any libraries where books can be shared freely. This summer we’ll launch our first campaign and will ask readers to choose five South African books that everyone should read. Then we’ll buy stacks of those books and give them away. Libraries just need to email us to register as beneficiaries. Everything will be at booktrust.org.za, hopefully in September.

Besides Bridge Books’ own projects, do you take part in any other literacy or community projects?

Right now we’re trying to help all kinds of groups access books. NerdAfrica operates its own traveling bookshop, which we help stock. A Roteract group in Harare, Zimbabwe is running a 100 books campaign, to encourage its members to read, so we help them find books. And I have a huge soft spot for the Mohlakeng Youth Movement, which created its own library after the community’s library burned down. There are tons of organisations doing great work – Fundza, Book Dash, Nal’ibali, African Storybook, to name a few.

Do you think that all bookstores have a responsibility to their community to get involved or motivate educational initiatives?

Bookstores and publishers in South Africa do amazing amounts of work to promote reading and to expand access to books – often below the radar and with little fanfare. I’m inspired by how much is already being done. Sometimes what’s lacking is communication so that the enormous goodwill that exists is directed in ways that are most useful for readers across the country.

Do you host any book signings, readings or workshops at your bookstore?

Yes, we run a regular series of free readings and discussions with our Brown Bag Lunch book club, on Fridays at 12:30pm in the shop. Those events are streamed live on our Facebook page, where they stay as videos, so people who can’t attend can still participate.

In our Unabridged series, we offer workshops with top authors to mentor up-and-coming writers. Because I come from a journalism background, I believe in the power of deadlines and the power of publication. So the goal for each workshop is that everyone in attendance should finish their project and have it polished enough for submission to publications or contests. We help new writers navigate that process too.

Is it possible for other organisations or schools to get involved with your project?

Yes, please! The African Book Trust needs help with fundraising. We also accept donations of books that we funnel to vendors on the street (but we can’t collect them, they have to be dropped off). We’d also love to hear from schools and libraries who would like to sign up to receive books from the Trust. They can email me at griffin@booktrust.co.za