In mid-September we’ll make our TENTH trip to Hay-on-Wye, the Book Town of Wales; it’s obviously one of our favourite places. We’ve concluded that 18 months is an ideal interval between visits for there to be adequate turnover in the bookshops and (hopefully) pleasant changes around the town. Last time we spent four nights in a holiday cottage in Cusop. This time we found an Airbnb flat in the town centre, where we’ve never stayed before. Towards the end of a wretched summer, we fear we’ll see the effects of drought even in Wales, where we usually enjoy walks through green sheep-dotted fields. Our Thursday to Sunday trip will cover market day and, incidentally, the annual music festival. We’ve booked tickets for a Saturday morning classical concert (with coffee and cake) at The Globe and will also go there on Thursday evening for burger and board game night after cocktails at Hay Distillery. There will be plenty of book shopping in between!

An Overhaul of Last Trip’s Book Purchases

Simon of Stuck in a Book has a regular blog feature he calls “The Overhaul,” where he revisits a book haul from some time ago and takes stock of what he’s read, what he still owns, etc. (here’s the most recent one). With his permission, I occasionally borrow the title and format to look back at what I’ve bought. Previous overhaul posts have covered pre-2020 Hay-on-Wye purchases, birthdays, the much-lamented Bookbarn International, and Northumberland. It’s been a good way of holding myself accountable for what I’ve purchased and reminding myself to read more from my shelves.

Here’s a look back at the 13 new (remainder) and secondhand books I bought in April 2025. I’ve done remarkably well on this haul in that I’ll soon have read 9! I’d call that a triumph.

Had already read (but wanted to own and eventually reread): 2

• Small Victories by Anne Lamott
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

Read (links to reviews): 6

• My Animals and Other Family by Julia Blackburn [passed on to a book club friend]
• Mittens for Kittens and Other Rhymes about Cats, ed. Lenore Blegvad
• Fountainville by Tishani Doshi [resold]
• Au Revoir, Tristesse by Viv Groskop
• A Rough Guide to the Heart by Pam Houston
• Tsi-Tsa by George Mikes

Currently reading: 1

• Kiss in the Hotel Joseph Conrad by Howard Norman

Still unread: 4

• What I Don’t Know about Animals by Jenny Diski
• Electricity by Victoria Glendinning
• Chaotic Angels by Gwyneth Lewis
• Charming Billy by Alice McDermott

Total still owned: 11

I’ll take the four unread books above – two novels, a collection by a Welsh poet, and autobiographical essays – with me to read in the car and while I’m in Hay. I also plan to purchase James Hanning’s recent biography, The Bookseller of Hay (about Richard Booth, Book Town founder and self-proclaimed “King of Hay”) in paperback to take with me. And I don’t think I’ll be able to resist yet another reread of Sixpence House, Paul Collins’s memoir about finding a temporary home and work among the bookshops of Hay, which is one of my favourite and most-read books of all time.

Now, if I go back a step and look again at the 16 books I bought in October 2023, the picture is not as encouraging. I’ve barely made any progress since my previous overhaul post except for reading one more poetry collection, The Return of the Cranes by John Heath-Stubbs. So I’ve also added the novels The Last Hope of Girls by Susie Boyt, The Tie that Binds by Kent Haruf, and How to Make an American Quilt by Whitney Otto; and the poetry volume From the Virgil Caverns by Peter Redgrove to the stack to take with me. “Taking books to Hay” could well be a saying epitomizing superfluity, just like “coals to Newcastle” and “tea to China,” but no matter. I always read a lot while I’m in such a bookish place.

(Going back even further, to our September 2020 trip, I note that I still have 13 of my 26 purchases to read. Yikes! I think I’ll ignore those for now…)