Local Hidden Treasure Trove: Bibliophile Clarens

Every time I visit Clarens and the Golden Gate area in the eastern Free State I fall in love with it all over again. Visiting it at different times of the year is like a private viewing of nature’s perfect seasonal colour palette, as if discovering the different personality traits and facets of someone you love but will never fully know. It has unmistakably become one of my favourite spots to visit in South Africa and lucky for me I have uncovered that its beauty does not only run skin deep .



Only a 2,5 hours drive from Johannesburg this coined little artist town nestled in the Maluti mountains is not only for gallery browsers and outdoor activity lovers but it comes equipped with its own little bookshop aptly named Bibliophile, for those days when the muscles need to recuperate and your thoughts seek their own adventure and deviation. The shop is situated just of the main street on a little dirt road and is packed with charm, character and above all a great selection of reads.

Friday Forecast

The SA weather service is predicting some cold weather coming our way this weekend and as murphy would have it I am going hiking in the Free State during this cold onslaught. This is probably going to be the first of many as winter is officially due within a couple of days. If I am to survive this weekend I am particularly excited about snuggling up with some of my favourite men and their long awaited novels during the next couple of months. So winter do your worst as I come armed with some serious (and not so serious) recommendations not only to wither the cold but to make you a winter to remember not only as the time when the Soccer World Cup came to South Africa

Solar by Ian McEwan


Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
ISBN: 9780224090506
RRP: R220

Solar by Ian McEwan.
Solar has just won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. Not bad for a first time venture into comedy but then again this is Ian McEwan we are talking about, the same Man Booker winner who has decided to try his hand at writing an opera based in his novel Atonement. I was skeptical when this master of contemporary fiction announced that his latest novel would be a comedic effort centered around climate change but halfway through it I have discovered that the author who has an uncanny knack for stripping a human being to only his darkest impulses is equally talented when it comes to comedic timing. His Nobel prize winning protagonist has managed to make me laugh out loud at his antics at the same time as he has brought about the impulse to throttle him. A book about the warming earth should indeed be acquired for the forthcoming cooler days.

Another Man Booker prize winner as well as a former shortlisted finalist got me equally excited about their latest releases

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel


Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
ISBN: 9781847677662
RRP R190

'Fate takes many forms. When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey - named Beatrice and Virgil - and the epic journey they undertake together. With all the spirit and originality that made Life of Pi so treasured, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the way Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity.'

via Penguin. Click on the Penguin link for the chance to win a signed copy of the long awaited new novel from Yann Martel who brought us the unforgettable Life of Pi

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell


Publisher: Sceptre
ISBN: 9780340921579
RRP 190

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by enigmatic David Mitchell adds to what is already an amazing collection of titles that never seize to excite his readers and it would seem critics alike. He is the darling of British postmodern fiction and his latest novel tells the story of a turning point in history on a tiny island attached to mainland Japan, David Mitchell’s tale of power, passion and integrity transports us to a world that is at once exotic and familiar: an extraordinary place and an era when news from abroad took months to arrive, yet when people behaved as they always do - loving, lusting and yearning, cheating, fighting and killing.

'Bringing to vivid life a tectonic shift between East and West, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is dramatic, funny, heartbreaking, enlightening and thought-provoking. Reading it is an unforgettable experience'. Amazon.co.uk

Happy reading this winter and keep me informed of your winter literary finds, pleasures , wish list as well as your reviews on the above mentioned titles. And as a final tip I would reccommend that a bottle of good homegrown South African red would be a perfect companion to these international men and their writing, as indulging in their brilliance is sure to fire up the coldest of winter days.

Feeling Bookish

The last couple of months a lot of people have been asking me how I feel about e-book readers and their effect on the book industry and it has been a hard question to answer. As with any product (please excuse me for reducing the book to such a commercial driven term) or industry trying to survive in an ever changing and unpredictable economic climate it is vital to keep up to date and stay in trend with technology which seems to be the main driving force in industries. Refusing to do so could be detrimental. That said the bibliophile in me can not fathom how the sensory pleasure of book and bookshop could ever be digitized.

While some have been preaching the demise of both the tangible book and the independent bookshop, their influences are undeniable on our culture as well as on the way we dwell. Enough so to have brought about these amazing book inspired designs that have been showcased most recently this month at the BKLYN Design show and the ICFF in New York. These designs do not only speak volumes about the book as an aesthetically pleasing object but are ode like creations aimed at the book as symbolic representation of where we have been, what we have accomplished and the impact of their contents that have irrevocably shaped our lives.

It goes without saying that the e-book has some dauntingly large shoes to fill and after looking at these designs it makes me say with a hint of pleasure...kindle who?


Shelving system Hold on Tight by Colleen & Eric via Design Sponge


BookLight by Myungseo Kang via Elle Deco SA


Faktura bookshelf via Apartment Therapy



The Duo bookshelf by Ana Linares via Apartment Therapy and Supermarket