Book lovers be warned. There is a bookshop in town that, besides books, sells delicious home made snacks, coffee and meals.

A visit to the new premises of Book Villa - looks like a bookshop turned library - is a temptation to linger while browsing since all the books are now within easy reach.

The well lit airy and spacious room is a far cry from the previous location in which search for books was an uncomfortable affair of bending really low or craning necks to see titles that were stacked from floor to ceiling.

Often, the four bookshop employees had to climb a ladder in order to access books in the confined space. Forget that now. Members have given the new location on the 8th floor of Union Towers on Moi Avenue, Nairobi, a thumbs up with some saying there is more variety, a testament to the importance of presentation.

"The layout is more spacious and there is more variety of books. It looks really nice, very professional," says Maryanne Muchui, an internal auditor who has been a member for three years.

Perhaps, Nairobi is seeing the emergence of a new reading culture. Adding to the temptation to linger around the bookshop, is the new members' lounge where patrons can relax and read while having a cup of coffee or a soft drink accompanied by delicious home-made snacks and meals, prepared by Naazleen Alibhai who owns and runs Book Villa together with her husband Salim Alibhai.

"It's not only easier to look for books, now I have somewhere to go and take something as I read," says Audrey Nafula, a student at USIU.

The bookshop has lost the advantage of walk-in customers at its former street level location, but Mr Alibhai says they are constantly communicating with members through e-mail and short message service (SMS) to keep them abreast of new developments and encouraging them to pass the information on to friends.

Book Villa became a popular haunt for book lovers when it started library services three years ago. For a flat annual fee members get to read as many books as they want all year round. There are three categories of membership.

Bronze for Sh1,000 where a member borrows one book at a time, silver for Sh3,000 to borrow up to three books at a time and gold membership at Sh5,000, where a member can take up to six books at each visit. "The gold membership is popular with members who live outside Nairobi and can't come regularly," says Mr Alibhai.

Although Books First, which is located at Nakumatt outlets, has a similar restaurant concept, Mr Alibhai says it's not a real competitor as it sells books whereas Book Villa is now basically a library. "Our main competition is other libraries, but we are ahead in terms of variety and keeping up with new books in the market," he says.

"Our main attraction is that we offer great value. Imagine buying a book for Sh600 and ending up not liking it."

If members want to keep a book they buy it at a discount. The bookshop also buys back fiction titles that its members no longer want. Book Villa started out as a bookshop targeting tourists, hence its former location at street level near the Stanley Hotel. But low revenues, after 15 years in the business, forced the owners to shift focus to a library concept.

"Many people wanted to read but couldn't afford the books and to encourage more readers we at first lent books at a small fee," says Mr Alibhai .

Book Villa currently has 60,000 titles and 800 members. The books are arranged in sections that are easy to navigate. There's something for everybody - from fiction to biographies and everything in between. One whole section is dedicated to business, management, leadership and marketing books. There are also sections for fiction, classics, hobbies, sports, cookery, health, inspiration, self-help and family.

"All the books are listed in our database and we can tell you immediately if we have the title you are looking for," says the founder whose favourite books are non-fiction and biographies. The bookshop has more women members than men," he says.

According to Mr Alibhai , the women prefer romance, self-help, and inspirational books, while men like books about business and investing. Motivational books are the fastest moving titles.

Although there is a section for African fiction featuring perennial favourites Chinua Achebe, Ken Saro Wiwa and Ngugi wa Thiong'o and newcomer Chimamanda Adichie, the selection of local authors is quite thin.

Mr Alibhai attributes this trend partly to low demand by readers. "Local authors and publishers don't market themselves properly. When the Harry Potter movie was showing we had promoters coming here with stuff for us to put up and give-aways like theatre tickets to promote sales of the book," he says.

The members lounge is run by Mrs Alibhai, who loves to cook. Other than snacks, the lounge serves meals ranging from Indian dishes, African foods such as ugali and irio, pilau, Chinese and pastas.

Typical dishes include chicken tikka, mutton or minced meat curry, served with rice and chapati. There is also a selection of fresh fruit juices and fruit salad. The restaurant is open daily from 10am to 7pm.

"Members can sign up to receive an SMS daily with the day's specials. We also do a lot of deliveries to offices and I'm about to start a take-away service for evenings," says Mrs Alibhai.

The lounge decorated in green, brown and yellow has big windows on all sides overlooking Nairobi's central business district. Potted plants are everywhere, enhancing the bright cheery ambience.

Prices for meals range from Sh150 for small portions to Sh250 for large ones. Mr Alibhai plans to set up other branches in residential areas.