Hay-on-Wye

I'm just back from a glorious few days in the town of books .. Hay on Wye on the Welsh/English border. It's an absolute book lovers paradise, there are about thirty seven bookshops and anywhere they can squeeze in a bookshelf they do.

I took my list of books with me and though I didn't stick to it religiously, it helped me to focus because to be honest you could just go mad in a place like Hay. Alan took my list and went off searching for the books I wanted ... I tried to rely on memory to help me out (not always successfully.) The bookshops are often housed in buildings that are ancient (one is in a ruined castle) and there are tottering piles of books everywhere. You find yourself halfway up a rickety staircase .. craning your neck sideways to look at the book lined walls .. there's no room for superstition, you get passed on the stairs a hundred times. Nearly all the books are filed alphabetically (by author) so that makes life a lot easier but sometimes they're just mish mashed together and you have to work a bit harder. Every day we went back to the hotel Alan photographed my book haul so far (see pics) .. day one looks a bit pathetic but we only reached Hay at half past two in the afternoon and had to book in etc so I thought I'd done pretty well to find anything. I bought some more before I left for home so the pics aren't quite up to date but almost. The little card that's in some of the photographs is an early birthday card for me from Alan, he looked especially for one with books on (he's spoiled me so much, I'm beginning to get suspicious.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

The hotel was lovely, there were bookcases everywhere .. even in the loo and you were free to borrow any of the books to read (which I did .. I bought fifty odd books over three days and took my own reading books with me and was still delving into theirs ... other people's books always look more exciting than your own.)

It is such a lovely place and we had a great time there, we're tempted to go back when the festival is on but the hotelier warned us that it gets really busy. I'm saving up my pennies to return though .. it's a great place to hunt for books.