Ike's Bookstore & Collectables in Durban

Get in a room with out of prints ... First edi­tions, second time around to be read more than thrice and passed down through gen­er­a­tions; line up in rows on bottle green painted book­shelves at the top of a wise old stair­case await­ing bib­li­o­philics. Wooden floors and paper pages fill slow unfold­ing morn­ings with Durban sun­light that slants through the corner sash win­dows defrost­ing for­got­ten novels ...

Books & Collectables

Unexpectant after­noons are plump with well-worn rugs and well read favour­ites. Typed poetry bound in volumes of verse are inter­spersed with hand­writ­ten notes of authors and act­iv­ists felt-tipped on the walls.

Scribed accounts of free­dom struggles shape black ink on white pages in the mem­or­able book­shop of South Africa's first anti­quar­ian book dealer of col­our, Joseph David 'Ike' Mayet (deceased in 2002).

Although the founder of this lit­er­ary haven, “Ike's”, has passed on, his­tory stays cur­rent on aged spines in his lit­er­ary out­let of charm. Flip your fin­gers through titles in search of an old edi­tion of a beloved clas­sic, find a ver­sion of a savoured story in Old English, dis­cover the first edi­tion of some­thing you haven't read, replace a cher­ished copy you lent out and never got back, hand select a romance to open fireside or trace a memory in a fairytale that was read to you as a child.

Books & Collectables

Memorabilia, arte­facts, col­lect­ables and bio­graph­ies; some once a for­bid­den read, some the first of many and some the one and only, dis­play amongst auto­graphs of Booker Prize win­ners, to be chosen for a new home and read with an open mind and heart.

Radical lit­er­at­ure debates Marxist and Leninist whis­pers in recor­ded words in this 20 year old private lib­rary set in a build­ing that has met pre­vi­ous centuries.

Dust off dust jack­ets of  'unheard of's' to present at book­club, wrap a gem as a gift, dis­cover a time­less tale in a serendip­it­ous find, source unusual travel lit­er­at­ure to absorb on the plane or leave empty handed but inspired; either way you'll exit with more than you entered and you'll wish you could have stayed a little longer ...

The Details:
Address: 48A Florida Road (below Argyle Road inter­sec­tion) Corner shop above 'Vanilla House', Durban.
Telephone: +27 (0)31 303‑9214
Email: ikesbooks@iafrica.com

Hours: Monday to Friday from 10h00 to 17h00; Saturday from 09h00 to 14h00 and closed on Sundays.
Cost: Free to browse; lucky finds at inex­pens­ive prices and price­less finds for a steal!

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