Hay-on-Wye: Book town that lures tourists
By K. Basrie
HAY-ON-WYE, Wales (JP): Keen rare book collectors or secondhand book lovers might find this tiny market town the mecca of their dreams.
Dubbed the largest and most complete secondhand book town in the world, Hay-on-Wye offers a grand selection of antiquarian books, used books, rare maps, prints, stamps, photographs and postcards.
Tourists' focus of attention is, of course, the 39 rare and secondhand bookstores spread throughout the center of the tiny town.
Each bookstore carries a running stock of between 1,000 and 300,000 books on various subjects.
They range from ancient literature works to Balkan history, from children's storybooks to teenage publications, and from astrology to the military.
A bunch of old and new fiction -- hard or paperback editions -- comics, annuals and albums are also on display to lure passersby.
Some shops specialize in specific areas, such as photography, boxing and nonfiction.
"This is the city of my dreams," a book collector from Jakarta said enthusiastically while browsing through a rack of vintage books in one of the shops.
Like many villagers, Hay book sellers see other traders not as rivals, but as neighbors. They kindly recommend other shops and give a detailed address to visitors.
"We're just like a big family here," said shop attendant David Allen.
The shop owners obtain their merchandise from various sources, including individuals, from all over the world through massive campaigns, such as pamphlets and a website (http://www.ruralwales.org.uk/haybookshops/home.htm).
The most effective way is by contacting promising sources and buyers and even inviting them to visit the town.
"I make people come to me. I do mail it worldwide. As long as they live on this planet, I'll send them an invitation," said Haydn Pugh of Blinking Images secondhand photographic bookstore.
The Hay's price?
It depends on the "status" and performance of the books. But prices are, of course, higher than those offered at weekend markets or charity shops that are found in many parts of the UK. Often, new books offered at a discount at ordinary bookstores in London could be much cheaper than secondhand books in Hay.
However, its wide collection of an estimated two million books cannot be challenged -- for the time being -- by any other book center in the world.
"I've been four years in the business. We enjoy a very good profit because many people like to have them," said Pugh, a Hay native who was once a freelance photographer.
With the diversity of bookstores, local crafts and the Nearby Black Mountains National Park, the town of some 2,000 population in the mountainous borderline of rural Wales and England lures 500,000 visitors annually, making it the fourth most popular tourist attraction in Wales.
The Hay-on-Wye was once in a shambles after big companies in the town crashed. But things started to get better when the town's first secondhand bookstore opened in 1961, by the town's "king" Richard Booth. Without any help from the government, the residents have been able to improve their lives. The Hay people -- who once earned a living from livestock, wool, tailoring and baking -- now run not only bookstores, but also their own antique emporiums, restaurants, cafes, handicraft shops and bed-and- breakfast hotels.
The success of Hay-on-Wye inspired the birth of most of the 60-odd book villages across the world, thanks to the magic hands of Booth, who is considered the "emperor of the book towns" in the worldwide book town society.
One new book town is Kampung Buku Malaysia (e-mail address: kgbukuml@tm.net.my) in Lubuk Semilang on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. It is billed as the only book town in the region.
It stocks new, secondhand and antiquarian books of -- among others -- Arabic literature and East Asian languages.
'Independence'
Hay-on-Wye became more popular on April 1, 1977 when some 200 locals got together on the streets to proclaim the "unilateral independence" of Hay-on-Wye, with Booth as the king.
Some may have considered it an April Fool's Day prank, or else a brilliant marketing ploy.
But it was a sincere attempt to shake off the bureaucratic control of Westminster and local authorities, who showed little practical interest in revitalizing the fading market town.
It has become regarded as a means of strengthening internal power, emphasizing support for local products, employment and creativity.
Every April, locals pack the town center to celebrate -- as they put it -- the kingdom's Independence Day.
This year's procession was marked with a full-day performance of jugglers, fire-breathers, a swinging brass section, free circus skills workshops, fire sculpture and fireworks.
Before the fireworks display, "king" Richard -- flanked by former "ministers" and peers -- descended from his castle and was "recrowned" by the first child born in the town after its "independence" 21 years ago.
Richard, who hosted a banquet of roasted spit pig, said: "I don't give a damn about the Welsh Assembly (to be held this June), it won't be able to do anything."
One of the organizers, Derek Addyman of Addyman Books and Murder & Mayhem said: "The celebration is a way of saying thank you to Richard for saving Hay from the fate of other border towns.
"By creating Hay as a book town, he not only put Hay on the map, but is keeping it on the map decades later."