A Book Town is a trend that began in the 1960’s and refers to a town or village with a large number of used book or antiquarian book stores.
Along with their unique and plentiful bookstores they also host wonderful literary festivals
These book festivals attract book lovers and bibliophiles from all over the world. A number of towns are also members of the International Organisation of Book Towns.
Check out these first 6 awesome, yet quaint little book towns:
Montolieu, France
Sometimes referred to as the “Village of Books.” Montolieu was the town that first introduced me to the concept of “Book Towns.” With a population of roughly only 747 people Montolieu contains fifteen bookshops, mostly specializing in second-hand and
antiquarian books.
Every year the town offers many workshops such as: Used and antiquarian bookshops, Working craftspeople of books and art, The Arts and Crafts of the Book Museum, Bibliophilia stocks, Educational activities around the Book and its craft, and many more. These workshops attract approx. . 52 000 visitors each year.
Hay-on-Wye, Wales
The concept of book towns first came into being in the 1960s, when the fortunes of Hay-on-Wye, a small market town on the Welsh/English border, were transformed by the power of books. The opportunity to regenerate struggling villages and towns by opening up secondhand bookstores and welcoming literary events has since been embraced by many other locations around the world. The town of just under 2,000 also hosts an “honesty bookshop,” where you make your selection against a backdrop of some old ruins and leave your money in a box.
Jinbōchō, Tokyo
Known as Tokyo’s center of used-book stores and publishing houses, and as a popular antique and curio shopping area. In 1913, a large fire destroyed most of the area. In the wake of the fire, a university professor named Shigeo Iwanami opened a bookstore in Jinbōchō which eventually grew into today’s Iwanami Shoten publishing house. Over time, the area became popular with university students and intellectuals, and many small bookstores and cafes opened there.
Hobart, New York
Hobart is a historical village in Delaware County, New York, United States. This beautiful agricultural community has a population of approx. 441 (at the 2010 census.) The village has 5 bookstores, as well as 20 other book sellers within a 20 mile radius. In 1999 the town was a ghost town but by 2005 Don Dales (a local entrepreneur) and musician saved the town by establishing the first book town east of the Mississippi.
For a detailed story about this town’s amazing
journey check out the article in this link:
Urueña, Spain
In the medieval town of Urueña, in Valladolid, you will find the first “Villa del Libro” in Spain. In the streets of this town you will find 12 bookshops selling old or out of print books, or wher e interesting activities take place: El Rincón Escrito, Alejandría Bookshop, “Wine Museum” Cellar Bookshop (specialising in science and fiction literature about wine), Alcuino Caligrafía (organises
courses on calligraphy of other cultures, for all levels), El 7 Bookshop (specialising in the world of bullfighting), Samuel Bookshop, Alvacal, Boutique del Cuento, Almadí Bookshop, La Punta del Iceberg, Alcaraván Bookshop and the Artisan Book Binding Workshop of Urueña.
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=167995
Redu, Belgium
In the beautiful Ardennes region of Belgium, Redu is a lovely little village with a population of 500. Local villager Noel Anselot returned from a trip to Hay-on-Wye In 1979, and was so inspired that he decided to regenerate his own tiny village by attracting booksellers. He wrote to many book-dealers across the region, inviting them to set up shop in some of the original village buildings (such as barns, houses, and sheds) to keep the look of the village intact. The project was a success. Now 17 bookshops specializing in secondhand books and comics are based in the village. Redu holds a number of book-related exhibitions and events every year, including a book night when the bookshops stay open all night long. The town was officially declared a book town in 1984 after holding its first book festival.
I cannot get over how beautiful these towns are.
It would be a dream to visit any one of them. However, I think I need to save up so I can plan an around the book world in 80 days trip!
Have you been to any of these book towns? Which would you love to visit?
Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow evening! Now Available: Pt: II
This is sooo adorable. I wish to live in such town! Thank you very much for sharing.
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I do too! Maybe one day. 🙂
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I would love to visit or live in a town that did this.
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Me too. 🙂
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Wonderful places.! Wonderful pictures.! 🍁
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🙂
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🍁
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This is so great! I would love to visit them all! I didn’t know about this but now I’m in love!
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That’s exactly the way I felt when I discovered their existence! 🙂
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I would love to visit one of those towns! I have always dreamed of living in a cute, small village but I had never heard of a book village! Thank you for this post! I need to go to one ASAP! (I wish there was something similar in Portland. It would suit it, wouldn’t it?)
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I have as well! It would indeed, but at least we have Powell’s City of Books 😀
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Haha that is so true. I love Powell’s so much.
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🙂
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Imagine living in a town like that. It would be amazing.
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I would adore it! Especially if it was near the sea. 🙂
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I wanna go to everyone of those towns! We have tons of used book stores here but spread far apart outside of Toronto. Still worth the hike!
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This is the first time I have heard of book towns. It is amazing, in a day and age where print is being replaced by digitalization, that there are still places where books have a place in a community. I think the one in New York I would visit first and then the one in Wales next. Being a teacher, I believe it is important that literacy be encouraged, such places are reminders that this is still true.
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I’m right there with you. 🙂
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Fascinating. I daren’t visit one. I have more books than I will ever read 🙂
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I don’t have quite that many yet, but I wager if I visit a few of these towns, I will end up in the same state. 🙂
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Pingback: Book Towns: Part I - 4 My Dollar
Gorgeous and oh, so interesting!
I have a serious case of Wanderlust now. I can’t believe how cute that is…a small town with lots of bookstores ❤
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I know, what could be better?! I think it’s absolutely charming. 🙂
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How wonderful! Thanks so much for posting this. We are in Europe this year and I will be checking out some of these places now! Cheers!
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That’s so great to hear! I hope it’s a wonderful experience for you. 🙂
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These are just fab! I don’t live too far from Wales at all – so perhaps an expidition to the book town should be on my to-do list! Brilliant – thanks for sharing!
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I hope you get a chance to go. Share some pictures if you do! 🙂
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Nice! I visited Hay on Wye back in 1994! I know, I just made myself sound old……..
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Not at all! What was it like?
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Thank you for this wonderful post!! And thank you for introducing this concept to oblivious folk like myself 😊
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I was oblivious myself until not too long ago. This is why I love blogging, I learn SO much. 🙂
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Yes, you’re absolutely right! That’s what I’m thinking now! I’m loving this already 😊
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This is such a great post and so informative. Though I’ve no immediate plans to travel abroad anytime soon Hobart, NY just may be doable.
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There is one in Minnesota also, but it didn’t make this list. I may have to do a Part III 🙂
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I’ll be on the lookout. Thx!
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🙂
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I must confess I have never visited any of them, though they seem inviting. But I do love to visit book stores, especially old book stores, and simply lose myself in the maze.
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I do too, I can loose the better part of a day browsing around a bookshop.
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Woow, so interesting! I would love to visit them all!
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Me too! It would make a great trip.
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Reblogged this on John's Notes and commented:
Very interesting. I had not heard of “book towns” before. This post gives me a few more entries to add to my list of places to visit.
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LOVE that first picture!
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It’s like a little piece of heaven!
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Reblogged this on Janet’s thread.
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So interesting – I had no idea about book towns before this. I love the first photo of the book spine buildings 🙂
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Me too, such a beautiful concept! 🙂
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This is great
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🙂
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I knew about Hay-on-Wye but haven’t visited any of them Can’t wait for Part II. I hope Sydney Booktown (http://www.sidneybooktown.ca) is on the list — it was early in the game, and is located in the beautiful Saanich Peninsula outside Victoria BC Canada. (Just a shameless plug for a home-country fave.)
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There is one in Australia on the list, but not that one, but thank you for pointing that one out, I’ll take a look at it. There may be a part III if I keep finding great ones. 🙂
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Thanks Abbie. I’d never read about the concept. Now I understand many large cities are losing their bookshops. Brives (near by) Has lost its last bookshop. 😦
I want to live in Montolieu. 🙂
(Where do you find all this???)
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That is so sad. I want to live there too, or in Fjærland, Norway from Part II http://cafebookbean.com/2016/02/29/book-towns-part-ii/ Honestly though, they are all SO amazing. As to how I found them; another blogger first introduced me to Montolieu, and after reading about it I become completely enamored with the concept. I then just researched the bedoodles out of it. 🙂
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Yeah, I like Fjaerland too. (In the summer please). And like I said: your research shows. Neat. You clearly do your homework. (All the more praiseworthy since you post practically every day. Or more!) Be good Abbie. (Or bad whatever is fun) 😉
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Thank you!
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Only just found this, and I see that you have Hay on Why – . . .
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🙂
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Reblogged this on Jen's Bookish Journey and commented:
Reblogging this to y’all book lovers because I’m sure you would love to visit it one day. 😀
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A place for a book worm!
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A perfect place. 🙂
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I would also like to visit these book towns. Most are far away from me but it’s nice to see one in upstate New York. That’s doable!
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Exactly, and there are also many others in the U.S. I just had to sum it to a reasonable number. I may do Part III or do a U.S. exclusive Booktown post. 🙂
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I like it!
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How neat! Oh, the things we learn! Thank you for sharing such wonderful nuggets of knowledge.
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I’m so happy to do it, and I learn so much in the process by the research but also from other awesome bloggers. This idea was sparked by a comment. 🙂
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I’ve been to Hay-on-Wye, it was brilliant. Not only for the bookshops but also for some wonderful little antique shops. A really interesting post. 🙂
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That sounds amazing I love antique shops.
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Reblogged this on Hello Creatives Times.
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I plan to reblog your post in my blog https://hellocreativestimes.com. Since you have enabled reblogging on your post, I am assuming that you are allowing others to reblog this post. However, if you have any objection to reblogging your post, please let us know as soon as possible. Thank you.
🙂
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