- Fascination Books
Fascination Books is one of
South Africa 's largest book chains with branches throughout South Africa. It stocks a wide range of books, focussing on religious books, while also stocking a great variety of books inAfrikaans . The company was founded and is owned by entrepreneur and naturalist Johan Marais.Outlets
As of December 2007, the Fascination Books group consists of 32 stores spread over
South Africa , with the largest concentration inGauteng . There are also branches inLimpopo , North West,Mpumalanga ,KwaZulu Natal , theEastern Cape ,Free State , and in theWestern Cape .Johan Marais
Beside Johan Marais being the founder and sole owner of the Fascination Books group, he is also the managing director of the company. He specialises in the field of
herpetology and is currently completing a master's degree at theUniversity of Witwatersrand under professor Graham Alexander, with whom he collaborated on the book "Guide toReptiles of Southern Africa". Prior to this he published "Snake versus Man" (1994), "Conservation and Utilization of theNile Crocodile " (1991; with professor Gerrie Smith), "Snakes of the World" (1984), "Snakes and Snakebites" (2001) "What's that snake?", a short identification guide on Southern African snakes, as well as "Snakes of Southern Africa" (2004; originally published in 1992, then totally rewritten), a complete guide, which was followed by the aforementioned reptile guide. All these books are published by Struik Books South Africa.Future expansion
According to Marais' website, he is planning to expand the group by increasing the outlets by two to six per year. Because of the group's focus on stocking a wide range of
Christian books, a new division is being implemented as part of various stores. This division will be known as "Fascination Faith", with a range of books as well asDVD s.In April 2008, the company also introduced an online store on its website, with a range of up to 3 million books.References
* http://www.fascinationbooks.co.za/ - Official company website.
* http://www.johanmarais.co.za/ - Marais' website.
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