Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside - to move, in fact, to the village of Hay-on-Wye, the "Town of Books" that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants and forty bookstores. Inviting readers into a sanctuary for book lovers, "Sixpence House"is a heartfelt and often hilarious meditation on what books mean to us."
I'm quoting this from this little gem's backcover. I love reading books about books, and this lovely little book is all about books and a little town that's all about books. I found myself jotting down notes for many of the books he mentions, hoping I might one day have the chance to read some of them myself.
The author takes the reader on a wonderful adventure in this tiny town of book lovers called Hay-On-Wye, or "Town of Books". The town is full of character and characters, both of which are wonderfully appealing. It's too late for me to track all the way back to Europe to visit it; anyway, the book has take me there in comfort of my armchair.
If you are a lover of books, this is definitely one for you. I can't recall another book about books that I have enjoyed as much as this one. It is definitely going on my Favourites shelf to be read again and again.
The humour in this book is wonderful as well. The author adores the British and many aspects of their way of life, even though he pokes gentle fun at them ... or maybe I should say, with them. "No situation is so dire that it cannot be interrupted for tea. It is particularly important to the British when it is cold and damp outdoors, which is often, or when it is cold and damp indoors, which is always."
And he gives useful advice on how to choose books:
"There is an implicit code that customers rely on. If a book cover has raised lettering, metallic lettering, or raised metallic lettering, then it is telling the reader: Hello, I am an easy-to-read work on espionage, romance, a celebrity, and/or murder. To readers who do not care for such things, this lettering tells them: Hello, I am garbage. Such books can use only glossy paper for the jacket; Serious Books can use glossy finish as well, but it is only Serious Books that are allowed to use matte finish.'
"Diminutively sized paperbacks, like serial romances or westerns or dieting and astrology guides, are aimed at the uneducated. But diminutively sized hardcover books are aimed at the educated -- excepting those that are very diminutive, which are relgious books aimed at the uneducated -- and unless they are in a highly rectangular format, in which they are point-of-purchase books aimed at the somewhat-but-not-entirely educated. However, vertically rectangular diminutive softcover books, which tend to be pocket travel guides, are aimed at the educated. But horizontally rectangular diminutive softcover books -- a genre pioneered by Garfield Gains Weight -- are not.'
"Then there are the colors. Bright colors, and shiny colors, are necessary for the aforementioned books with raised lettering. Black will work too, but only if used to set off the bright and shiny colors. Because, remember, with the customary base in mind, the book will need to be a bright and shiny object. Conversely, a work of Serious Literature will have muted, tea-stained colors. Black is okay here too, but only if used to accentuate cool blues and grays and greens.'
"Woe and alas to any who transgress these laws. A number of reviewers railed against The Bridges of Madison Country, because it used the diminutive hardcover size and muted color scheme of, say, an Annie Dillard book -- thus cruelly tricking readers of Serious Literature into buying junk. Not to be outdone, the Harvard University Press issued Walter Benjamin's opus The Arcades Project with gigantic raised metallic lettering. One can only imagine the disgust of blowhard fifthysomethings in bomber jackets as they slowly realized that the Project they were reading about was a cultural analysis of the 19th century Parisian life -- and not, say a tale involving renegade Russian scientists and a mad general aboard a nuclear submarine.'
"Finally, on Serious Books and junk alike there will be a head-shot photo of The Author sitting still while looking pensive or smiling faintly into the indeterminate distance -- the one pose that has no existence in the author's actual daily life. The size of this photo will be in inverse proportion to the quality of the book. If this photo is rendered in color, it is not a Serious Book. If there is no author photo at all, then it is a Serious Book indeed -- perhaps even a textbook. If a color photo of the author occupies the entire front cover, the book is unequivocable junk."
If this has piqued your interest, click here for an online read.
