Book Travels by Dawn Lairamore

I’m writing this on my summer vacation, so I guess I have vacations on my mind. Although I’ve never taken a literary-inspired vacation, either because reading about a certain place made me want to visit it in real life or because I wanted to do hands-on research for one of my own projects, I certainly know people who have. In fact, I have an acquaintance who went to Prince Edward Island for her honeymoon simply because of her childhood love for Anne of Green Gables. But recently I heard about a phenomena that really made me want to book a plane flight—and maybe someday I will. I was introduced to Book Towns.

Book Towns are small towns and villages with a high number of (generally used) bookstores. Such towns often host literary festivals or other book-themed events, making them destinations of choice for bibliophiles. I recently learned about Book Towns after listening to a friend describe her visit to Hay-on-Wye, also known as “the town of books.” Hay-on-Wye is located on the Welsh/English border along the River Wye, and like many charming English villages, it has a couple of crumbling castles, a number of beautiful old churches, a clock tower, and a traditional village square and market. It also boasts over two dozen bookstores, quite a sizable number for a village of less than 1,500 residents. This includes a shop specializing in children’s books, another in poetry, and another in mysteries and detective fiction. There’s even a bookshop specializing in maps and another specializing in natural history. This place sounds like a book-lover’s dream! I could probably spend several hours in Murder and Mayhem, the mystery bookshop alone, not to mention the children’s-themed bookstore, of course.

And while the book browsing and shopping holds massive amounts of appeal, I also just adore the idea of being someplace where the entire community is largely based on the love of books. Hay-on-Wye sounds like my kind of place!

Will you be visiting a Book Town or taking a literary-inspired vacation this summer? Or have you ever?

-Dawn Lairamore

photo credit: Street sign, Edinburgh via photopin (license)
photo credit: Hay On Wye via photopin (license)

photo credit: Hide the Kindle via photopin (license)