Page 84 - wadirum

Hay-On-Wye, Wales

A TINY TOWN THAT GOES BY THE BOOK

| STORY AND PHOTOS BY SHARON WHITLEY LARSEN |

I them in this town of 1,500 house over Mayhem”--begged me to enter. I darted
was on my third visit to Hay-on-
Wye, Wales, a charming market
in and out of various shops filled with
one million books on every topic imag-
books everywhere—on shelves so high
inable—collectible, used, discounted
town in the Upper Wye Valley, on
the border of England—and a
book lover’s dream! Nearly everywhere new, children’s--priced from 50p (about that one needed a stool or ladder; books
75 cents) to over 2,000 pounds (about
piled on chairs, stacked on floors. Never
I turned—on most narrow streets, I $3,000). mind the dust! Or the musty smell. Or
spotted a secondhand bookstore. The the requisite literary cat sleeping atop a
former fire station, the old cinema— Where to go first? Each shop—from counter or in a front window!
even the castle! Some two dozen of “The Sensible Bookshop” to “Murder and
84 Wine Dine & Travel 2016