Joys of a travelling bookstore
Ex-principal spreads power of reading to schools
FAITH in the enduring power of books led a former teacher and principal to hit the road with his travelling bookstore.
Rob Andrew, the owner of Diskonto Books, has been visiting schools around KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape with his travelling bookstore for the past 15 years. He was at El Shaddai Christian Academy last Friday.
The attraction for parents and schools is that all the books he sells – both fiction and non-fiction – are discounted at a third to a quarter of the retail price.
“About 80% of buyers are parents and grandparents, and 20% the school itself,” Andrew said.
His average sales at each school are between R15000 to R25 000, and he gives each school 7.5% of what he makes.
Based in Hilton, Andrew is on the road for two weeks at a time, visiting about six schools during that period. He reaches about 70 schools overall.
“I usually spend a day and a morning at each school. Today [last Friday] it’s just one day,” he said. “It’s a lot of work all by myself packing and unpacking the books, but the schools help.”
Andrew started teaching in the early ’90s, including a stint teaching in the UK. He served as principal for a while at Creighton Primary in KwaZulu-Natal before his family emigrated to New Zealand in 2008. But their immigration was short-lived.
He took up teaching again in New Zealand but found it difficult working in schools without discipline.
“We left after six months,” he said. “People mostly move from South Africa because of crime and their kids, but you trade one set of circumstances for another.
“Your kids are going to mix with a completely different set of values, without the discipline that you’re used to.”
Back in South Africa, Andrew resumed his travelling bookstore.
Explaining how he got into it in the first place, Andrew said a book salesman visited the school where he was the principal and did a presentation.
He extended the opportunity to Andrew to join the bookselling business and Andrew took him up on it. “I did a book show and I loved it.” He believes books still have a place in a society saturated with digital and social media.
“Those kids who read profusely are in a different bracket to others in terms of their knowledge and intelligence,” he said.
“Even with all the growth in technology and access to digital information, nothing beats reading a book. Even Kindle users still like reading traditional books. They are avid readers.”
There was much excitement among the pupils at El Shaddai as they browsed through the variety of books for sale. Parents also popped in to buy some books.
Andrew’s own children are 20, 17 and 14.