For as long as I can remember I’ve bought books, not just when I needed one for something in particular but simply because I like books. I think you either understand this or not, there’s much middle ground. Terry Prachett’s fictional world where books talks to each other and warp space and time can feel very real in a large bookshop when there are few people about. The Internet might provide vastly more information but it lacks the sense of presence of books.
Richard Booth Books in Hay-on-Wye is extraordinary. It’s one of the best bookshops I’ve ever been in. I first visited in the late 1980s when Richard Booth was still very much alive and the reputation of the town as the centre of the second hand book trade was still growing. Back then, or course, there was no Internet selling of books. Buying second hand books was a matter of finding a shop and then standing for hours (and hours) to see what was on offer. It may be inefficient but there’s no more enjoyable way to buy books because most of the time you only know what you want when you see it.
I wasn’t sure about making the foray to Hay on a Sunday in February. It’s the thick end of a couple of hours drive for me so it’s not a trip I do often. The last time I did so in winter, was about ten years ago. I went because the weather wasn’t great and I wanted to get out. What I hadn’t appreciated was that the second hand book trade on the English/Welsh border doesn’t generate enough income to pay for much heating in winter. After a few hours in cold, damp bookshops I had to call it a day and get back in the car to get warm. Time softens the memory though and I reckoned if I dressed to look like the Michelin Man in wool and Gortex, I’d be OK.
As it turned out I was overdressed. In spite of the sharp rising in fuel prices, things must be looking up for the owners (Wikipedia tells me Richard Booth died in 2019, having sold his shop ten years earlier). The shop was warm, not crazy warm, but warm enough that after two hours I could still feel my feet.
From the outside Booths stands out from the crowd. The shopfront is unlike anything else on the street (or indeed any other street I can think of). It’s also a lot cleaner and better painted than I remember it. As you approach the door you step on a concrete manhole cover into which the words “Richard Booth World’s largest Secondhand Bookshop” have been set. I don’t know if this is still true but it’s so much a part of the place I don’t suppose anyone will insist on it being dug up.
Inside the shop is a world of wooden floorboards, exposed wooden ceiling rafters and row after row of beautiful wooden bookshelves. It feels like the best of libraries, a place of civilisation, a place where people talk in whispers not because you’re required to, but because it just feels the right thing to do.
The shop has actually changed a lot in recent years. As well as having welcoming heating, it’s been renovated and greatly cleaned. Decent heating means the smell of damp has gone although, as you would hope, the faint odour of old books is still there. I’m pleased about that, not just because it’s more comfortable in my old age but damp doesn’t do books any good.
The shelves are tidy and there are no dark corners where books are just piled up as if no one cares about them. I recall there used to be a section for old newspapers and magazines that looked like a waste paper pile. It was no use to anyone. Gentrification isn’t always for the better but careful curation is very welcome. Books are precious things and they deserve to be looked after and here they clearly are.
The other big change is that the shop is now selling a good number of new books. Indeed the shop announces itself over the door as “Secondhand and New Books”. I wonder if there are people who are disappointed at the inclusion of new books? I have to say it doesn’t trouble me at all. If that’s what it takes to compete with the Internet then that’s fine with me.
There are signs of where to find the different sections but if you’ve not been before, take a wander through the whole place. Take time to go upstairs, not least because it gives you chance to admire the staircase on the way.
I’d already been in a couple of other books shops, including the large and very excellent Cinema Bookshop, as well as the Hay Antiques Market so I had to restrict myself to a couple of hours here. I left with the biography of Henry Doulton for a modest £5.00. I recently became aware it existed but I’d never seen a copy and it’s turning out to be a really interesting read. A perfect example of not knowing what I wanted until I saw it.
Armed with the knowledge that a winter visit to Hay doesn’t need to be an endurance test any more, I will be back. Hay gets very busy in summer, which isn’t a problem in itself but I like the quiet of winter. If you’re inspired to visit in winter, my only word of caution is that if your interests extend beyond books then I would avoid Sundays as many of the shops and (importantly as a man who likes a mug of tea) and some cafes are closed.
