Happy Birthday & Bookshop Day

By Rebecca Foster on October 14, 2023

Happy Bookshop Day from Hay-on-Wye (and its newest bookshop, Gay on Wye)!

Today is my 40th birthday and I have been spending the weekend book shopping, reading, eating and drinking. What more could I ask for?

All photos by Chris Foster.

Before we left for Wales, I had my book club over for birthday cakes and bubbles. My husband made me a chocolate Guinness cake (vegan so everyone could share it) and pumpkin chai cupcakes; both recipes were from Hummingbird Bakery cookbooks.

Except this one taken by our neighbour

I’ll report back on Monday with my book haul and trip highlights.

For now, here are some sweet lines from a children’s book I read this morning, about cats named Tom and Mot who discover that friendship and imagination are the greatest gifts, and that present has a double meaning: the now that must be appreciated.

“And then it was time for a hot drink and the cake. The cake tasted like the BEST birthday cake in the world. … ‘Today was the best present in the world,’ said Tom. ‘The perfect present!’”

Posted in: Bookshops, Events | Tagged: birthday, Bookshops, cats, children's books, Hay-on-Wye, Petr Horáček, secondhand books, Wales

38 responses

Karissa October 14, 2023 at 2:24 PM | Reply

Happy Birthday! Looks like a delightful way to celebrate!

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:29 AM | Reply
  
  Thank you! It was 🙂
  
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Liz Dexter October 14, 2023 at 2:52 PM | Reply

Happiest of birthdays! How wonderful to be in Hay (and that new shop looks intriguing: oh, dear, I’ll have to go to Hay again). Also love the pic of you two and puss!

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:30 AM | Reply
  
  Thanks, Liz. Gay on Wye would certainly be up your street! Hay has gentrified and diversified so much since we first visited in 2004. Richard Booth would probably be turning in his grave, but it means the place has survived as a book town.
  
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jonathanelphick October 14, 2023 at 3:43 PM | Reply

Happy Birthday! Glad you’re having such a lovely literary and culinary day! Hope to see you and Chris sometime soonish. Sadly not at New Networks any more …

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:31 AM | Reply
  
  So kind of you to comment! Yes, it’s such a shame NNN has folded. There’s nothing else quite like it. We will miss the literary nature community we found there.
  
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lauratfrey October 14, 2023 at 3:53 PM | Reply

Happy Birthday! “Gay on Wye” is a great name.

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:33 AM | Reply
  
  Isn’t it great?! We kept chuckling about it.
  
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Elle October 14, 2023 at 5:08 PM | Reply

Happy birthday to youuuu! It sounds like a perfect celebration 🙂 Can’t wait to see your book haul!

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:33 AM | Reply
  
  It was just right, if over all too soon.
  
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Penny October 14, 2023 at 7:22 PM | Reply

Happy birthday. Looks a great weekend x

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:34 AM | Reply
  
  It was! Thanks, Penny.
  
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Jinjer October 14, 2023 at 7:25 PM | Reply

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate a birthday, especially in such a CUTE town!!! And how lucky are you to have a husband who bakes??? Happy Birthday!

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:36 AM | Reply
  
  Hay is a great place to explore. It used to have even more bookshops, many of them cheap and ramshackle, but it still has a dozen or more.
  
  My husband does all of the cooking and much of the baking. I am very lucky indeed!
  
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Rebecca Moon Ruark October 15, 2023 at 1:35 AM | Reply

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:37 AM | Reply
  
  It was a lovely weekend. We even had sunny (but cold) weather on two of the days.
  
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jillmarley October 15, 2023 at 4:34 AM | Reply

Hay is one place I have on my bucket list too. So glad for you to have celebrated your 40th birthday in your happy place, surrounded by books. Happy birthday from Australia!

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:37 AM | Reply
  
  Thanks for commenting, Jill! Hay is a must if you ever get across to the UK.
  
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margaret21 October 15, 2023 at 8:22 AM | Reply

Happy birthday, you young thing. It looks as if you spent it in the best way possible.

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:38 AM | Reply
  
  I’d meant to get back to Hay again before 40. In the end I turned 40 there, which seemed fitting.
  
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  1. margaret21 October 16, 2023 at 4:13 PM
    
    I think so. Well done.
    
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Kate W October 15, 2023 at 8:38 AM | Reply

Happy birthday and it looks like you had a beautiful and fitting celebration.

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:38 AM | Reply
  
  I did! Thank you.
  
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Laila@BigReadingLife October 15, 2023 at 7:19 PM | Reply

Happy birthday!!

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:39 AM | Reply
  
  Thanks, Laila 🙂
  
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Simon T October 15, 2023 at 7:54 PM | Reply

Happy birthday! Amazing that nobody has thought of that bookshop name before, tbh

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:39 AM | Reply
  
  Thanks! It’s pretty awesome — I kept having that Little Britain “only gay in the village” line (in a Welsh accent, no less) in my head.
  
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MarketGardenReader/IntegratedExpat October 15, 2023 at 11:52 PM | Reply

Happy belated birthday! I’m looking forward to seeing your birthday book pile. My husband is a baker, too, but something tells me he would actively avoid taking me to Hay-on-Wye, especially if it was my birthday.

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:40 AM | Reply
  
  It can certainly be a dangerous place! The fact that I’d already been to two book towns earlier in the year probably reduced my overall spending.
  
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  1. MarketGardenReader/IntegratedExpat October 16, 2023 at 5:04 PM
    
    I had the same effect in charity shops in England this year. I found almost nothing I actually wanted to buy, probably because I bought so much last year.
    
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Laura October 16, 2023 at 7:19 AM | Reply

Happy happy birthday again Rebecca! Looks like an amazing celebration x

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1. Rebecca Foster October 16, 2023 at 11:41 AM | Reply
  
  Thanks! I had a good weekend 🙂
  
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Hay-on-Wye Trip & Book Haul | Bookish Beck October 16, 2023 at 3:11 PM | Reply

[…] to the more expensive options (Green Ink, Booths). The town’s newest shop, as pictured in my birthday post, is Gay on Wye, which, with North Books, replaced Pembertons as sellers of new stock. (Booth’s, […]

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Barbara Skinner October 19, 2023 at 3:51 PM | Reply

I love this! Happy Birthday! 🥳

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1. Rebecca Foster October 19, 2023 at 3:54 PM | Reply
  
  Thank you!
  
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Naomi October 27, 2023 at 1:38 PM | Reply

Happy Birthday (again)!!! Really, this looks and sounds like my dream birthday. Someday I will go to Hay-on-Wye!

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1. Rebecca Foster October 30, 2023 at 7:09 PM | Reply
  
  I hope you can! Does Canada have any Book Towns?
  
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  1. Naomi November 1, 2023 at 1:50 AM
    
    Not that I know of…
    
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