📖 Overview
Paul Collins chronicles his family's move from San Francisco to Hay-on-Wye, Wales - a small town with over forty bookstores and three million books. The memoir follows their search for a permanent home while Collins works in Richard Booth's antiquarian bookshop.
Between house-hunting adventures, Collins shares discoveries from centuries-old volumes and forgotten texts he encounters in the town's endless bookshops. His work cataloging rare books leads to encounters with eccentric local characters and fellow book lovers who have made Hay-on-Wye their home.
Through observations about obscure authors, publishing history, and life in a book town, Collins examines humanity's relationship with the written word across generations. The narrative speaks to questions of what makes a place feel like home and how books shape both personal and cultural memory.
👀 Reviews
Readers appreciate Collins' wit and humor in describing his family's attempt to relocate to Hay-on-Wye, Wales's book town. Book collectors and bibliophiles connect with his observations about rare books and the used book trade.
Reviewers highlight the vivid portraits of eccentric townspeople and the author's reflections on parenthood. Multiple readers note the book captures the charm of browsing dusty bookshops.
Common criticisms include a meandering narrative structure, abrupt ending, and too many tangential historical facts. Some readers expected more focus on books/bookselling and less on Welsh town life. Multiple reviews mention the story feels unfinished.
Ratings:
Goodreads: 3.7/5 (2,100+ ratings)
Amazon: 4.1/5 (80+ reviews)
LibraryThing: 3.8/5 (900+ ratings)
Sample review: "Like sitting in a pub listening to someone tell stories - some fascinating, others that go nowhere. But the bookish bits kept me reading." - Goodreads reviewer
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🤔 Interesting facts
📚 Hay-on-Wye, the Welsh town where the book is set, is known as the "Town of Books" and has over 30 bookstores despite having a population of only 1,500 people.
🏛️ Paul Collins has served as the literary detective on NPR's Weekend Edition and is a founding editor of the Collins Library imprint of McSweeney's Books.
📖 The book's title comes from a dilapidated pub Collins considered buying in Hay-on-Wye, which was selling for just sixpence more than he could afford.
🌍 Richard Booth, mentioned in the book, proclaimed himself the "King of Hay" in 1977 and transformed the town into a global destination for book lovers by filling it with secondhand bookshops.
📚 The author moved to Hay-on-Wye with his wife and infant son while writing his own book about forgotten authors, and the experience of living among millions of old books inspired this memoir.