Author Topic: Talking Heads ~ Book Towns (Read 14821 times)

BooksAdmin · « **on:** June 07, 2011, 09:08:19 PM »

Talking Heads #12

June 15 - 30

"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.

A forum for opinions on anything in print: magazines, newspaper and online articles.
Bring your ideas and let's discuss.

Book Towns

Have you ever been to a Book Town? Come tell us about it and maybe leave us a link to it?

~~~

A Book Town in Bécherel, France

What do you know about "book towns" in North America or around the world?

Here's one in Canada: Canadian Coastal Community Teeming in Book Titles

And another in Great Britain: Hay-on-Wye: it’s about more than books

Contact: Annie -

ANNIE · « **Reply #1 on:** June 11, 2011, 04:07:26 PM »

Talking Heads will open again on June 15. Welcome, everyone! Imagine---a Book City! That's the only reason people visit. For the last two weeks in June we are going to find and explore Book Cities throughout the world.

If you have ever been to one please tell us about it, starting June 15, and leave a link.
There are two book cities in the links above. Look at how they have been established and now have annual festivals devoted to books.

pedln · « **Reply #2 on:** June 15, 2011, 08:05:58 PM »

I love the idea of Book Towns, and remember when years ago we read Paul Collins' Sixpence House, about his stay in Hay-on-Wye with his family. But just what is a BookTown?

The link below tells about a writer's feelings about Ann Arbor, MI, a college town, and why the bookstores are special to her.

Ann Arbor

As much as I love visiting my girls in New York, I do miss going to the Charlottesville historic mall like I used to do when they lived in Virginia. That mall, just a 2-3 block area, must have had at least four or five books stores, and each one was different. That's where I found my indispensible Wheelock. (Latin). I think I still have a few booksmarks from one of the stores, "Read it again, Sam."

maryz · « **Reply #3 on:** June 15, 2011, 11:35:07 PM »

I've never heard of "book towns", so I'll be interested in hearing what's involved in this discussion.

ANNIE · « **Reply #4 on:** June 16, 2011, 08:20:10 AM »

http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-interviews/larry_portzline_inside_bookstore_tourism_20051003/

I wish we had known about this tour in NYC last year. 'Twould have been a great high light to our visit.

pedln · « **Reply #5 on:** June 16, 2011, 09:53:53 AM »

This morning I went looking for the bookstores at Charlottesville Mall, but couldn’t find a listing, but did find something about them written by an intrepid traveler (not me). I liked it because it sounds like the sort of thing one would do in a BookTown.

Quote

But I digress. Needless to say, I loved the Downtown Mall. According to the directory, there are something like nine bookstores along the seven blocks, only one of them a new bookstore and that was also locally owned and non-chain. We only got into one of them the first night: Read it again, Sam. I didn't end up buying anything, but have to share descriptions of two items I resisted purchasing:
1. A slipcased hardcover edition of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus with introduction by Charles Nicholl and woodcut engravings. Yes, I know I'm a geek, but the sight of one of Marlowe's authenticated signatures in gold lettering against the red leather -- gorgeous. But I didn't need to spend $30 for a play I already have other copies of, and can get free online. [Were it an actual replica of the original text, it might've been harder to resist, but they did modernize the spellings.] So, I left it on the shelf.
2. The other book was so far over my budget that I never seriously considered buying it. They had a 1638 -- I think it was a sextimodecimo -- of the works of Thomas Overbury. I actually was allowed to hold and flip through it. Sigh. For those unfamiliar with the story, Overbury was a noble and feh poet whose murder was a major scandal during the reign of King James VI & I. The suspect was one of the king's lovers and his wife, and their marriage was already a bit of a sex scandal in itself. Overbury was a rather so-so guy who suddenly became the cats' pyjamas upon his death. What really grabbed me was the date of the edition, which means it was probably reprinted as English Civil War anti-Royalist propaganda. So I was more impressed by what it represented than by the actual contents. But with a price of $500, I just felt honored to be permitted to touch it. Le sigh...

Here's the link if you want to read more by this writer --

Cville Mall Rambles

. . . sigh. I wonder if I'll ever get there again. But as Annie has shown above, maybe STillwater, MN

maryz · « **Reply #6 on:** June 16, 2011, 10:29:24 AM »

I still don't know what constitutes a "book town".

ANNIE · « **Reply #7 on:** June 16, 2011, 11:09:59 AM »

MaryZ, take a look at the links that we have up here. What amazes me are the festivals that have come out of being designated a BT. And the man who thought of Book Town tours around NYC. All independent dealers.

maryz · « **Reply #8 on:** June 16, 2011, 11:37:43 AM »

Annie, I've looked at the links. Does it mean that it's a town that has lots of bookstores and uses that as a tourist draw?

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #9 on:** June 16, 2011, 10:33:20 PM »

Bookies may know Archer City however the north west Texas town does not seem to feature the diamond they have among them of Larry McMurtry and his famous Used Bookstore - where with North Texas University Larry holds writing classes

http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/2009/08/04/Archer_City_Texas.aspx

http://web3.unt.edu/news/story.cfm?story=10500

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86915508@N00/254613632/

And here is the web site for Archer City - what can we say...

http://www.archercity.org/

salan · « **Reply #10 on:** June 17, 2011, 07:40:21 AM »

This looks like it will be interesting. I have never heard of a book town. I am curious.....
Sally

pedln · « **Reply #11 on:** June 17, 2011, 10:53:14 AM »

Very interesting, Barbara. I read a couple of those links, all the while thinking, "yeah, you stick-it to 'em, Larry," and come to find out, that's just what the author said in the last line. 1800 people, 900 for him, 900 agin 'em. I think it qualifies as a BookTown.

Sounds like a good place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

The Last Picture Show -- fond memories and I know just when I saw it. Back in Puerto Rico in the 1970's, my very brave in-laws had taken six kids, including my four, to Disney World. I went to the movies ALONE (a first ever) in the AFTERNOON!

(The in-laws never repeated that activity, although my FIL was known to say that he'd like to go back by himself someday.)

ANNIE · « **Reply #12 on:** June 17, 2011, 03:01:55 PM »

I have a link to a favorite book store of mine in Long Beach, CA. Although it is now closed here is a nice video about it and a famous author, Ray Bradbury, who wrote a poem entitled "I Sing the Bookstore Eclectic".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD3IeBqRc0w&NR=1

My mother and I visited this book store in 1988 trying to find her favorite book as a child.
"Chip of the Flying U" and we found it. I looked it up and woman wrote it. Amazing! Its was written in the early 1900's.
Here's a link:
http://www.online-literature.com/bm-bower/

And after all this, I was able to download B&N's ereader and this book was free to download. Whoa!

kidsal · « **Reply #13 on:** June 18, 2011, 04:20:25 AM »

In the summer CSpan covers many book festivals across the country. Often authors speak at these festivals.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #14 on:** June 18, 2011, 09:24:22 AM »

Here is a link to a site about Sedburgh, a book town in Yorkshire. My FIL likes it, but we visited it last summer and I really didn't take to it. There was one good bookshop and a lot of gift/book shops that weren't very interesting (at least to me!), and the prices were high.

http://www.sedbergh.org.uk/booktown/

A second hand book shop that I really do like is Barter Books in Northumberland. I wouldn't call Alnwick a book town, but it is a nice place - and Alnwick Castle was, I believe, used to film the school scenes in Harry Potter:

http://www.barterbooks.co.uk/

http://www.alnwickcastle.com/

Rosemary

ANNIE · « **Reply #15 on:** June 18, 2011, 10:03:42 AM »

Rosemary,
Many thanks for these links. I was excited to see Alnwick Castle but dissatisfied when I couldn't find pictures of the Harry Potter school scenes. Are you saying that much of the school sites in the movie were filmed at Alnwick? On going to their events page, I see that June is dedicated to Harry Potter and things like this:
http://www.alnwickcastle.com/whats-on/view/wizard-weekend-1

I also cut and pasted the very good description of what a "Book Town" is from one of your other links. Here's 'tis:

Especially for Mary Z, who keeps asking:

What is a Book Town?

Well, it's a town, usually small and usually rural, which has brought together a number of bookshops and other businesses based on writing, reading, publishing and so on. In practice many of the shops will concentrate on selling second-hand books. There are thousands of book enthusiasts whose great joy is to find an out-of-print volume to add to their collections; for them a Book Town is a treasure chest just waiting to be opened. Book Towns have spread around the world from the first one, which was founded by Hay-on-Wye bookdealer Richard Booth in 1961. There are now over twenty towns throughout the World describing themselves as Book Towns or Book Villages.

Also here is link to Scotland's National Book Town:

http://www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk/index.asp

ANNIE · « **Reply #16 on:** June 18, 2011, 10:20:50 AM »

Kidsal,
Yes, CSPAN does cover many festivals but they seem to be geared to all new books and authors. What we are looking for here are towns and favorite stores dedicated to used books.

maryz · « **Reply #17 on:** June 18, 2011, 10:51:34 AM »

OK, Annie - thanks. Now I understand that it's a small town that uses lots of used book stores to attract visitors. It's just something I'd never heard of before.

JoanR · « **Reply #18 on:** June 18, 2011, 01:16:07 PM »

I imagine the king of all book-towns would be Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Daughter Kathy & I visited it on one of our trips to England around 25 years ago. It was full of bookshops then and is probably more loaded now since they have the annual Hay Book Festival there every year in early June.

Our favorite then was the Castle book shop - we even got to see the lord &master himself. The place was the most unbelievable shambles and I don't believe that we actually bought any books there. However we managed to acquire so many at the numerous other bookshops in town that we had to ship them home!
We went there in the middle of summer but it was cold and drizzly - nearly froze in our B&B - the owner said rather disdainfully that "of course, we don't have central heating". Well, OK, but how about a fireplace or 2, or more blankets - those were sentiments we tactfully kept to ouselves!

Everything else about the town was just great and we had a fine old time!!

JoanR · « **Reply #19 on:** June 18, 2011, 01:18:20 PM »

I meant to put in this link about the Castle:

http://architecture.about.com/od/castlesbritain/a/haycastle.htm

Hay-on-Wye is easy to google - lots of stuff on it.

ANNIE · « **Reply #20 on:** June 20, 2011, 08:40:58 AM »

JoanR,
If I am reading correctly, the Hay on Rye is in the castle??

One of my favorite places when I lived in California was Ohai.

http://www.vcstar.com/events/2011/mar/27/6770/

There were books everywhere you looked on bookshelves, out on the sidewalks. This was when I started to collect old kid's books but I have given that up as there is no one to leave them to. I have given them all away.

JoanR · « **Reply #21 on:** June 20, 2011, 10:32:48 AM »

Hay-on-Wye is the town; the castle is in it!!!!!!!! The Hay Book Festival is held every year and is quite famous, people attend it from around the world and there are many authors giving talks.

ANNIE · « **Reply #22 on:** June 20, 2011, 01:08:17 PM »

Hahahahah! Did I ask about Hay-on-Rye??? Yes, I did! And easy mistake!

JoanR · « **Reply #23 on:** June 20, 2011, 01:17:23 PM »

Anne - that sure doesn't sound like a very tempting sandwich!!!!!!!!!!!! How about pastrami on rye? Which I sadly can't eat anymore - just like to remember them.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #24 on:** June 21, 2011, 02:50:52 AM »

I've never been here but found another Book Town online located in UK.
http://www.sedbergh.org.uk/

ANNIE · « **Reply #25 on:** June 21, 2011, 09:30:03 AM »

What a lovely site is Sedberg, UK, Barbara. They do present their town well on that site. Aren't they on the west side of GB?
Here's an interesting site which tells of naming bookstore? Its up in Maine.

http://sarahsbooksusedrare.blogspot.com/2006/06/fine-art-of-naming-bookshop.html

And a link to Books You Don't Need:

http://www.montaguebookmill.com/

pedln · « **Reply #26 on:** June 21, 2011, 09:38:51 AM »

Interesting site, Barbara. Sounds like a good place to visit. I was particularly drawn to the woman who started her book store back in the ‘60s when she put 20 books for sale on the wall in front of her house and now has a successful venue. Perhaps a good idea for many of us.

Here’s another description of some Dutch booktowns, found in Stars and Stripes of all places. A couple of towns with some unique ideas, like the private seller days, twice a year.

Dutch Book Towns

ANNIE · « **Reply #27 on:** June 21, 2011, 09:40:08 AM »

Another link, this time to "The World's Most Inspiring Bookstores".

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/05/15/trazzler_slide_show_beautiful_bookstores/slideshow.html
I love the first one which is in London. What a inspiring photo!

And the one in Maastricht, Netherlands!

I have discovered a book town in Spain.

And I have been to Powell's in Portland, OR.

ANNIE · « **Reply #28 on:** June 21, 2011, 10:04:25 AM »

Pedl'n,
We are posting at the same time!
That article about booktowns throughout the world is interesting. A good read!

Frybabe · « **Reply #29 on:** June 23, 2011, 07:00:35 PM »

Imagine turning a theater into a bookstore, and the stage is a reading room. My very favorite pix is the bookstore in Porto, Portugal. I'm a sucker for spiral staircases.

ANNIE · « **Reply #30 on:** June 23, 2011, 07:08:06 PM »

Me, too, Frybabe! but I love Maastritch, Netherlands, also.

Steph · « **Reply #31 on:** June 24, 2011, 09:09:26 PM »

I think Seattle qualifies. I know that in the one section, there were at least four book stores, somenew, some old, some rare, some not.. One totally mystery, which I adored. He said he shipped,, my husband said.. OH NO.. and I went nuts.. Had them all shipped..Such fun.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #32 on:** June 25, 2011, 01:34:53 AM »

I just wondered where that drawing at the top of the page comes from? The one with all the men in the railway carriage?

Rosemary

ANNIE · « **Reply #33 on:** June 26, 2011, 01:12:11 PM »

Rosemary,
Under the sketch it says, that Herbert Bayard Swope is credited with it and something called the Op-Ed page. I think I will 'google' this man.

Here we go, a little bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Bayard_Swope

And here's a link to story of him creating the Op Ed page:
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5406028_op_ed-column_.html

Another link to the creator of the Op Ed page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-ed[/b]

Frybabe · « **Reply #34 on:** June 26, 2011, 01:32:06 PM »

That is interesting, Annie. I don't think I've run across his name but I do know of the Algonquin Round Table. Most particularly, I remember Dorothy Parker was a member.

pedln · « **Reply #35 on:** June 26, 2011, 10:15:57 PM »

Steph, I agree with you. Lots of interesting bookstores in Seattle. I've been to that mystery one that you mentioned. One year when I'd gone out to my daughter's for Christmas, Mary Daheim was reading from her Alpine series there. My favorite is called Third Place Books -- both new and used, and they have a small dining area. Then when you finish browsing and eating you can go outside and play chess on the sidewalk with the gigantic chess pieces -- just like you see in some places in Europe.

Steph · « **Reply #36 on:** June 27, 2011, 06:16:39 AM »

Ilove used book stores and have visited them all over the world.. Cambridge , Ma. is another great used bookstore area. And of course Brattle in Boston. But I also loved the travel bookstore.. which had a huge variety of maps, tour books, books on travel. etc. Neat store in Boston..

ANNIE · « **Reply #37 on:** June 28, 2011, 10:04:46 AM »

We had a delightful time visiting Powell's in Portland, OR in 2005. We found ourselves there 3 or 4 times. They also have a delightful restaurant/coffee area where people go to read and chat. They also sell new and used books.

ANNIE · « **Reply #38 on:** June 28, 2011, 07:51:29 PM »

Here's another book town description which doesn't include Seattle or Portland because they are big cities.

A Book Town is a small rural town or village in which second-hand and antiquarian bookshops are concentrated. Most Book Towns have developed in villages of historic interest or of scenic beauty.

ANNIE · « **Reply #39 on:** June 28, 2011, 07:55:49 PM »

And here's a link to a book town or village in Finland and how they got started having a book festival each year.

http://www.sysmankirjakyla.fi/index.php?PAGE=11&COMPANY=kirjakyla

And I love the pictures of their book festival:

http://www.sysmankirjakyla.fi/index.php?PAGE=13&COMPANY=kirjakyla

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Author Topic: Talking Heads ~ Book Towns (Read 14821 times)