Throughout history, written literature has proven to be invaluable to the human race and has served as a great way to immortalize and communicate ideas to people. Doesn’t matter the medium: digital, hardcover or paperback, reading is a pleasure and the pathway to culture, knowledge and wit.
Accra features some select bookshops where you are guaranteed a wide variety of books at great prices. Keep reading to find the top 4 bookshops in Accra.
Evolution of books through history
From old parchments, manuscripts books to more recently, e-books, we continue to seek knowledge, entertainment and information in written pages and the development of human civilization has been to a large extent been driven by books; no wonder reading and writing remains one of the most crucial skills to develop in today’s world. In fact, book selling has been done since 300 BC and has continued down to this day albeit it being done in different ways throughout the ages.
Although our world is being increasingly digitized and mobile, hardcopy books have not totally lost their relevance and moreover, not all hard copy books have been digitized. Especially many rare books and those protected by strict copyright laws and some authors as well as readers prefer a good hardcopy.
Best 4 bookshops in Accra
EPP Bookshop
EPP Bookshop was established in 1991, by Gibrine Adam who was a teacher and a burgeoning author as he wrote a series of books under the name “Essenco Professional Publications”.
“Essenco” being a name given to him by his students, which means Essential Commodity. From humble beginnings where the bookshop started from a wooden structure, when it was registered as EPP, they moved several locations before finally settling at their present Head office.
EPP bookshop can arguably be described as the biggest bookshop in Ghana mainly because of their resourcefulness and their readiness to provide people with a varied collection for purchase. It comes as no surprise that EPP has over 15 branches of retail bookshops. Their services even extend beyond the shores of Ghana, namely; Sierra Leone, Benin and Nigeria showing the extent of its influence.
EPP bookshop deals in books in virtually all kinds of subjects – from fiction, non- fiction, self-help, textbooks, books for children, to do-it-yourself books and many more.
University of Ghana Bookshop
The well-resourced, air-conditioned bookshop located in the heart of the University of Ghana is one to note. The bookshop was established because there was a need to have tertiary education study materials and tools as they were in short supply and there was no serious bookshop that served the needs of students hence the decision of the school to set her up a bookshop.
The bookshop also made research journals and other academic publications more accessible to the University populace. It was established shortly after the establishment of the University and it did not take long for its doors to be opened to the general public because of the scarce bookshops that existed through the years. The bookshop has its current product range to be over 15,000 books and other items.
In October 2015, Kingdom Books and Stationery Limited took over the operations of the bookshop and has given it an ultra modern facelift; and in the year 2020, Kingdom Books and Stationary in conjunction with the University of Ghana set up a branch of the bookshop at Korle-Bu to serve the Health Science students as well as the general public within that vicinity and beyond.
Vidya Bookshop
Autobiography/biography, Business & non-fiction, children’ books, drama, economics & finance, Educational books – SAT, TOEFL, GCSE; fantasy & Series. These are the major categories of books you can get at Vidya Bookshop, which is located close to the popular Oxford Street of Osu RE 18th Lane Oxford Street.
Vidya is a bookshop that offers In-store shopping and delivery services. It is off Oxford Street on the left from Dankwah Circle, just before you get to the Shoprite building on the right.
The bookshop is well stocked and delivers free of charge within the radius of 10 kilometres. Additionally, Vidya hosts quarterly author readings where patrons and book lovers get to meet and interact with their favourite authors.
The staff are very helpful, pleasant and excellent at what they do; and this always leaves positive reviews from patrons. They always have the current books in stock. The bookshop is open at 8am and closes at 6pm from Mondays to Saturdays.
Conveniently, Vidya bookshop has an online portal where purchases can be made from the comfort of your home or office and delivered to your doorstep.
Methodist Book Depot
Reverend John Millum was one of the priests of the Methodist Church in -Cape Coast in Ghana’s era of colonialism. As a bibliophile, he soon found a need for establishing a small “book room” in 1881 with a stock of 20 British Pounds which would be approximately 2,494.52 British Pounds in 2021.
After he left Gold Coast (now Ghana), the Methodist Church of Ghana took possession of his book room and decided to make it a commercial wing of the Methodist Church, with the aim of providing Christian literature and educational materials to members of the church as well as to the general public.
In 1960, the year in which Ghana became a Republic, it was incorporated as a Limited Liability Company. If you walk into the Methodist Book Depot, most of the books on sale are educational materials in the forms of school textbooks and workbooks, religious books, readers (novels), preschool activity books, Dictionaries, some Encyclopaedias and reference books, law and medical books, communion wine and wafers, as well as general school and office stationery.
The Methodist Book Depot is located at the Western edge of Independence Avenue, directly adjacent to the Ghana Law School and opposite the Makola market.
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