My daughter recently suggested an exciting road trip: a visit to Hay-on-Wye, a unique town in Wales, right on the border with England. It’s about a 160-mile drive from home, so we set off around 6 AM to make good time.

We knew the famous Hay Festival was happening, and while we planned to check it out, our main draw was the town itself.

Hay-on-Wye is renowned for its incredible number of secondhand bookshops. It all began in the 1960s when a chap named Richard Booth opened a bookshop called Richard Booth’s bookshop, selling secondhand treasures he’d gathered from American universities and other institutions. Over the years, more bookshops followed, and today, you can explore a little over 30 of them! Hay-on-Wye is now internationally recognized as the world’s first “Booktown.”

Below I’ve marked the bookshops we got to visit on our trip, which when I look isn’t even half of the 30 bookshops in the town!  Some of them were so big, you would literally get lost in them and next thing you know you’ve spent ages in them.

There is a lovely family pub we ate in called the Three Tuns.  Also, I’ve marked a lovely stationers shop that I had to look in called Bartrums & Co.

It’s our daughter who’s the true bookworm of the family. Since she was just two or three, she’s always adored books. I remember my wife and I setting up a bookcase and a chair for her, and she would sit there for hours, lost in her stories.

I must admit, I’ve never been a huge reader myself, though I did read more 15-20 years ago (nowhere near my daughter’s level, though!). However, over the last year, I’ve found myself reading more. I think it’s really helped me with my mental health to get lost in a story and switch off. I’m now reading more in bed instead of watching TV – I’m currently enjoying Stephen King’s “The Shining.” I might have mentioned in another post that the “The Shining” movie with Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite horror films, but I’ve never read his books until now.

My preferred genres are sci-fi, fantasy, murder mysteries, and horror. So, I’ve decided to start reading some of the classics, like Shirley Jackson’s well-known works such as “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Lottery,” along with other classics by Jules Verne, H. P. Lovecraft, H. G. Wells, and Philip K. Dick, to name a few.

I’ve already read some classics over the years, like “1984,” “War of the Worlds,” and “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Now I’m keen to keep adding to that list.

One of my new goals is to build a collection of these classic books by finding secondhand copies in charity shops, car boot sales, and similar places. I want to try and get older editions whenever possible!

I’ve already started a list of books I want to collect in my A6 notebook, which fits perfectly in my new leather cover from Temu. I even managed to find a copy of Philip K. Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly” at a local charity shop recently. But it was the trip to Hay-on-Wye where I really hoped to find some additions to my growing list.

I wasn’t disappointed! In a vintage clothing and furniture shop called Bain and Murrin, I stumbled upon a 1950s copy of Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” for just £2.

The cover had come away from the book itself, but I’ve already fixed it by carefully gluing it back on, as you can see in the photos. For a 70-year-old book, the cover shows expected signs of wear, but overall, its condition is remarkably good for its age.

As I browsed the bookshops, I noticed they sell a mixture of secondhand and brand-new books. My aim, though, is always to find a secondhand copy, and the older, the better (depending, of course, on the price and the book’s condition).

At Richard Booth’s Bookshop on Lion Street – the very place that started it all in Hay-on-Wye – I found copies of Philip K. Dick’s “The Golden Man” and “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch” for around £2-3 each. What a score!

By about 4 PM, we decided it was time to leave Hay-on-Wye. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to explore all 30-odd bookshops, but we needed to start the long journey home. My daughter, her boyfriend, and I shared the driving to and from Hay-on-Wye.

If you ever get the chance to visit Hay-on-Wye, I highly recommend it. It’s a lovely town, and browsing the bookshops is truly enjoyable. My wife and I are already talking about going back for a night or two so we can have more time to explore and perhaps even visit every single one!

Beyond our trip, I’ve also been checking out World of Books. They currently (at the time of writing this) have a sale on secondhand books: buy three, get one free! I’ve managed to snag copies of “The Vampyre” by John William Polidori, Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Lottery,” and finally, “Dune” by Frank Herbert.

Even today at a charity Shop not far from us I found 3 new books which were Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (never seen the movie), Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and American Pyscho by Bret Eastern Ellis (seen the movie, but never realised it was based on a book!).

Have you been to Hay-on-Wye? Did you enjoy your visit, or is it now on your travel wish list? Let me know in the comments!