Love Books

{{Promotional|date=May 2025}}

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{{Infobox company

| name = Love Books

| logo = Love Books signboard.jpg

| industry = Publishing

| founded = {{Start date and age|2009|06|08}} in Melville, Johannesburg, South Africa

| founders = {{bulleted list|Kate Rogan |Jaci Jenkins }}

| products = {{bulleted list|South African Books|Children's Books}}

| website = {{URL|https://lovebooks.co.za/}}

}}

Love Books is an intimate, homely, comfortable and well stocked indie bookshop located in Melville, a suburb described by Wikipedia as "Bohemian".{{Cite web |last=2Summers |date=2013-06-10 |title=Melville's Memory Lane |url=https://2summers.net/2013/06/10/melvilles-memory-lane/ |access-date=2025-05-29 |website=2Summers |language=en}}

Literary scholars and those within their academic circles tend to praise certain types of reading, prioritise individual writers and overanalyse their works.{{Cite web |last=Cummins |first=Megan |date=2025-04-15 |title=Scholars Have Lost the Plot! |url=https://www.publicbooks.org/scholars-have-lost-the-plot/ |access-date=2025-05-29 |website=Public Books |language=en-US}} Love Books (and its owner) counters this elitism with an egalitarian environment where anyone, across the city's multiple layers, can cross literary thresholds and enjoy interacting with the literati. Jo’burg’s local bibliophiles visit this literary salon regularly, preferring "socially prominent" Kate Rogan's sponsored literary discussions and her thoughtfully curated collection of local authors to corporate chain stores.{{Cite news |last=Bass |first=Holly |date=2015-11-19 |title=Where to Go in Melville, Johannesburg |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/18/travel/johannesburg-melville-south-africa.html,%20https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/18/travel/johannesburg-melville-south-africa.html |access-date=2025-05-27 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Although Indie bookshops operate in challenging South African conditions, https://publishsa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Publishing-Industry-Survey-2022-2023-1.pdf all publishers are represented on the shelves and online.https://lovebooks.co.za/shop/

The physical shopfront was established by Jaci Jenkins and Kate Rogan and they opened its doors for the first time in June 2009. https://melvilleandparktown.joburg/2018/11/21/the-survival-of-a-bookshop-in-an-evolving-and-artsy-melville/ Rogan has made book launch events a signature feature, by bringing her media background (publishing, editing and radio) to literature, and over the last 15 years and she has built a loyal customer base. {{Cite journal |last=Hawarden |first=Verity |last2=Moore |first2=Amy Fisher |date=2021-01-01 |title=Love books: sustained success amidst uncertainties |url=https://doi.org/10.1108/EEMCS-04-2021-0115 |journal=Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1108/EEMCS-04-2021-0115 |issn=2045-0621}} Like most other bookshops, the shelves are laden with literature written by local [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:South_African_writers| South African authors] and their international peers. Love Books was recognized as the best independent book seller in 2019 {{Cite web |title=SA Booksellers {{!}} 2019 Sefika and SA Book Award winners announced |url=https://www.sabooksellers.com/2019-sefika-and-sa-book-award-winners-announced/ |access-date=2025-05-28 |website=www.sabooksellers.com}} and it ongoing literary events and its salon culture, address the many challenges that independent bookshops experience.{{Cite journal |last=Kelso |first=Ronel |date=2019 |title=A study of independent bookshops in South Africa |url=https://hdl.handle.net/10539/29308 |language=en}}

The store and the neigbouring coffee shops are a platform for launching new authors and their works.{{Cite news |title=BACKSTORY: Love Books owner Kate Rogan |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/money-and-investing/backstory/2020-05-14-backstory-love-books-owner-kate-rogan/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241208100057/https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/money-and-investing/backstory/2020-05-14-backstory-love-books-owner-kate-rogan/ |archive-date=2024-12-08 |access-date=2025-05-27 |work=BusinessLIVE |language=en-ZA}} Kate Rogan and staff are known for thinking globally and acting locally in the store's history there have been many evening book launches, when this neighborhood book shop is full of guests, with Rogan as the gracious host for a book launch. Love Books has not been not threatened by the digital turn, and Rogan has experimented online and taken to YouTube, intending to make book launch events virtually available.{{Cite journal |last=Hawarden |first=Verity |last2=Moore |first2=Amy Fisher |date=2021-01-01 |title=Love books: sustained success amidst uncertainties |url=https://doi.org/10.1108/EEMCS-04-2021-0115 |journal=Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1108/EEMCS-04-2021-0115 |issn=2045-0621}} So while known local authors can be found browsing the shelves,https://melvilleandparktown.joburg/2018/11/21/the-survival-of-a-bookshop-in-an-evolving-and-artsy-melville/ those international authors and readers who missed the book events, {{Cite web |date=2025-05-27 |title=Events Archive |url=https://lovebooks.co.za/events/ |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Love Books |language=en-US}} can follow on YouTube.{{Cite web |title=Love Books |url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Z0f6S_zh3Gfc5x74gvchQ |access-date=2025-05-28 |website=YouTube |language=en}}