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Title: Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins ISBN: 1-58234-284-9 Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.21 (28 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Booklovers Delight
Comment: Hay-on-Wye, Wales is the destination of Paul and Jennifer Collins and their baby son, Morgan. A move from San Francisco to this small town of 1500 is a BIG move. Why would a young family pack up their belongings and move on? For the love of books!
At some point a couple of years previous, Paul and Jennifer had stopped off in Hay-on-Wye and fell in love. Hay-on-Wye is a mecca for booklovers, and antiquarian books in particular. Hay-on-Wye is "The Town of Books". It has 1500 townspeople, five churches, four grocers, two newsagents one post office and forty bookstores. Antiquarian books in antiquarian buildings. Very few buildings in Hay are under one hundred years old.
Paul is a writer and life in San Francisco was becoming too expensive. The plan would be to find a house, fix it up and live there forever. Paul could write and dream. Jennifer could paint and Morgan would grow up.
Paul and his wife and babe live in a hotel while they are looking for a house. They meet with an agent who really works for the sellers- no one works for buyers in Wales. They look at very old houses, with very small rooms and lots of work to be done. They find one that they love, but... the sellers want too much money. They find another house but the sellers want to be paid again for the land if they sell the house and it's acres...
In the meantime, Paul starts working at Booths, one of the 40 bookstores and the largest. He is asked to organize the American section. He reports to work and finds books and books and books and more books stored here and there. Many of the books he finds have stories of their own and Paul is quick to tell them. Who would have thought I might be interested in reading "The Gentle Art of Faking" by Riccardo Nibili?
This is a book for those of us who love books. Paul Collins tells us a story about a town and the people who live there and love their books. He writes about publishing, and eccentrics. He tells us his tales of the family's explorations and travels. He gives us his personal memoir and tells a tale of a family who follows their dream...and then he tells
us of the time he lost his American passport. This is a book not to be missed. A book lover's delight. prisrob
Rating: 4
Summary: Charming, but something of a letdown by the end
Comment: I enjoyed 'Sixpence House' more than I thought I might. At first the general idea of the story seemed slight to me, but Paul Collins is a wonderful writer, self-deprecating but genuinely smart and very funny in an unexpected way. I laughed out loud a lot, which I don't often do when I read. His appreciation for the absurdities in antiquated writing was dead on, and the book quotes were particularly enjoyable to me. I also liked getting to know his son; his observances, so brief and sweet, reminded me a bit of Adam Gopnik's essays in 'Paris to the Moon'. I was wishing the book would go on and on, but then the end abruptly came and I felt deflated. Why did they decide to leave Hay-on-Wye, and with such little thought? Had they invested nothing in the place after all? And if not, then what was the point of the journey? The abrupt ending made me feel as if Collins gave up the ghost on the town, and on the book, too. He just sort of...quit. I'm waiting for part two.
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting... considering I own the house.
Comment: The first thing I knew about this book was when an American I didn't know knocked on my door and asked to see my cellar.An odd request, certainly, but he seemed quite nice so I let him. He was a touch disappointed that there were no barrels floating in six inches of water, and I'm afraid I couldn't provide him with any disturbingly charismatic 7 year olds hovering at the light switch, but he did seem very pleased with himself that he'd found the house at all. Paul Collins paints a picture of Hay-on-Wye that is both amusingly accurate and poetically exaggerated. I am surprised that he has neglected to mention that Hay is set amongst some of the most beautiful scenery in the country (the Black Mountains, the Brecon Beacons) and that Hay is home to an internationally acclaimed Literary festival (visited by Clinton a couple of years ago)where once a year the town explodes into a vibrant cornucopia of literary gluttony. (see the Hay festival website). My house is a fabulous house. It may be for sale (see 'Humberts' website) but it is still a fabulous house!
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Title: So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading by Sara Nelson ISBN: 0399150838 Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons Pub. Date: 09 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl ISBN: 1570613818 Publisher: Sasquatch Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World by Nicholas A. Basbanes ISBN: 0060082879 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles ISBN: 0393020290 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter ISBN: 0312317255 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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