Bookstores in Cape Town
Cape Town, Western Cape has 32 bookstores on the map. That's 32 bookshops mapped around Cape Town, each with its own shelves and specialties. The used sections are where the real bargains hide. Give yourself an hour minimum — bookshops are the one errand that always takes longer than planned.
This guide covers every bookstore we could verify in and around Cape Town (within about 40 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include Bible House and Kalk Bay Books, plus Exclusive Books. If a bookshop's missing from Cape Town's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.
The Cape Town bookstore lineup
32 mapped within about 40 km:
Bible House
BookstoreRun by Bible Society of SA
Bible House is Bookstore run by Bible Society of SA.
Kalk Bay Books
Bookstore
Kalk Bay Books — Bookstore, found on 62 Main Road in Kalk Bay. Also worth knowing about Kalk Bay Books: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
62 Main Road, Kalk Bay
Phone: +27 21 788 2266
Exclusive Books
Bookstore
Exclusive Books is Bookstore. Exclusive Books also notes on the map: it has a website with more detail.
CNA
Bookstore
CNA — Bookstore.
PNA
Bookstore
PNA — Bookstore.
Waltons
Bookstore
Waltons is Bookstore.
PnA
Bookstore
PnA is Bookstore.
The Catholic Bookshop
Bookstore
The Catholic Bookshop — Bookstore. Also worth knowing about The Catholic Bookshop: it has a website with more detail.
Cafda Book Shop
Bookstore
Cafda Book Shop — Bookstore. Also worth knowing about Cafda Book Shop: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00; Sa 09:00-13:30; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
Hours: Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00; Sa 09:00-13:30
Phone: +27 21 434 6149
Aurora Books
Used bookstore
Aurora Books — Used bookstore.
Exclusive Books
Bookstore
Exclusive Books is Bookstore. Exclusive Books also notes on the map: it has a website with more detail.
Book Lounge
Bookstore
Book Lounge is Bookstore on Roeland Street. Book Lounge also notes on the map: it has a website with more detail.
Roeland Street
Van Schaik
Bookstore
Van Schaik — Bookstore.
Bargain Books
Bookstore
Bargain Books is Bookstore. Bargain Books also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 08:30-18:00; Su 09:00-17:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
Hours: Mo-Sa 08:30-18:00; Su 09:00-17:00
Phone: +27 21 914 9035
Bargain Books
Bookstore
Bargain Books is Bookstore. Bargain Books also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 09:00-19:00; Sa-Su 09:00-17:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
Hours: Mo-Fr 09:00-19:00; Sa-Su 09:00-17:00
Phone: +27 21 595 4590
CUM Books
BookstoreRun by CUM Books
Run by CUM Books, CUM Books is Bookstore.
PenCafe Stationers
BookstoreRun by Hein Oosthuizen
PenCafe Stationers is Bookstore run by Hein Oosthuizen on Main Road. PenCafe Stationers also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 08:00-18:00, Sa 09:00-14:00, Su 09:00-13:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
Main Road, 7550
Hours: Mo-Fr 08:00-18:00, Sa 09:00-14:00, Su 09:00-13:00
Phone: +27 21 975 6085
Quagga Rare Books & Art
Bookstore
Quagga Rare Books & Art is Bookstore on 84/86 Main Road.
84/86 Main Road, 7990
Help The Rural Child
Bookstore
Help The Rural Child is Bookstore.
Van Schaik
Bookstore
Van Schaik — Bookstore.
Blank Books
Used bookstore
Blank Books is Used bookstore. Blank Books also notes on the map: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
Phone: +27 21 447 5741
Obs Books
Bookstore
Obs Books is Bookstore. Obs Books also notes on the map: it has a website with more detail.
The Dean Street Bookshop
BookstoreRun by Wordsworth
The Dean Street Bookshop is Bookstore run by Wordsworth.
Book Junction
Used bookstore
Book Junction is Used bookstore.
Claudison's 2nd Hand Book Store
Bookstore
Claudison's 2nd Hand Book Store — Bookstore.
Oasis Second Hand Books
Bookstore
Oasis Second Hand Books — Bookstore.
Clarke's
Bookstore
Clarke's is Bookstore on 199 Long Street. Clarke's also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00; Sa 09:30-13:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
199 Long Street, 8001
Hours: Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00; Sa 09:30-13:00
Phone: +27 21 423 5739
Exclusive Books
Bookstore
Exclusive Books is Bookstore. Exclusive Books also notes on the map: it has a website with more detail.
Exclusive Books
Bookstore
Exclusive Books is Bookstore. Exclusive Books also notes on the map: it has a website with more detail.
The Secret Book Store
Bookstore
The Secret Book Store — Bookstore.
Wordsworth
Bookstore
Wordsworth is Bookstore.
Paper Moon Book Shop
Bookstore
Paper Moon Book Shop — Bookstore, found on 105 Roodebloem Road in Cape Town. Also worth knowing about Paper Moon Book Shop: the map lists its hours as Tu-Su 09:00-17:00.
105 Roodebloem Road, Cape Town, 7925
Hours: Tu-Su 09:00-17:00
What the map tells us about bookstores in Cape Town
6 of the 32 list their opening hours on the map, which is genuinely useful — bookshops keep civilised hours, so the listed ones are usually reliable.
11 have websites listed. Worth a look for events — readings and signings get announced there first.
3 of the shops are tagged as selling used books — the second-hand shelves are where out-of-print gems and first editions turn up for pocket change.
The Cape Town bookstore crawl
Plot these on a map and the day plans itself: Bible House, Kalk Bay Books on 62 Main Road, Exclusive Books, CNA, PNA, Waltons, PnA, and The Catholic Bookshop. That's 32 stops on the Cape Town bookstore crawl. 24 more are listed below.
Bookstore tips for Cape Town
Browsing in Cape Town? A little strategy helps:
- Poetry lives in bookshops at Bible House. Poetry barely exists online as a browsing experience. The poetry shelf in a real shop is a different world.
- Check the staff picks shelf first at Kalk Bay Books. It's the fastest read of a shop's personality. If the picks excite you, the rest of the store will too.
- Don't skip the small press section. The weird, wonderful stuff lives here. Small presses take the risks the big publishers won't.
- Come back seasonally. Stock turns over with the publishing seasons. The shop you browsed in spring is a different shop by autumn.
Good to know
We searched about 40 km around Cape Town — that covers the town itself plus the surrounding communities you'd reasonably drive to. Listings come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by local volunteers, so a brand-new bookstore in Cape Town can take a while to appear. Spotted a closure among the 32, or a bookstore we missed entirely? The map is the source of truth here — one OpenStreetMap edit corrects it for everyone.
We don't list prices — they change constantly and vary by edition. What we list is the where: real shops, verified by real mappers, in alphabetical order with no favourites.
If you run one of the 32 listed here and something's wrong — a closure, a move, new hours — the fix is the same: update the shop on OpenStreetMap and the correction flows through to this page on the next daily refresh.
Bookstore listings for Cape Town: 32 mapped from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Photos from Wikimedia Commons contributors; individual photo credits appear in captions. Listing data was last refreshed automatically — verify hours before visiting.