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"Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside - to move, in fact, to the little cobblestone village of Hay-on-Wye, the "Town of Books," boasting 1,500 inhabitants...and forty bookstores. Antiquarian bookstores, no less."."Hay's newest residents accordingly take up residence in a sixteenth-century apartment over a bookstore, meeting the village's large population of misfits and bibliomaniacs by working for world class eccentric Richard Booth - the self-declared King of Hay, owner of the local castle, and proprietor of the world's largest and most chaotic used book warren. A useless clerk, Paul delights in shifting dusty stacks of books around and sifting them for ancient gems like Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable, Confession of an Author's Wife, and I Was Hitler's Maid. Meanwhile, as he struggles with the final touches on his own first book, Banvard's Folly, nearing publication in the United States, he also duly fulfills his duty as a British citizen by simultaneously applying to be a peer in the House of Lords and attempting to buy Sixpence House, a beautiful and neglected old tumbledown pub for sale in the town's center."."Sixpence House is an engaging meditation on what books mean to us, and how their meaning can resonate long after they have been abandoned by their public."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)
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It wasn't even really very much about books. It was set in a famous real life town in Wales, Hay-on-Wye, where there are 1500 permanent residents and 42 bookstores. But....trust me, after reading this book, I have no more picture of this town, its inhabitants, or its obsession with books than I know how to make homemade sausage.
I do think that if an author is going to make the sorts of general points that were being made in this book about what Britain is like then he needs to be able to look at his own experience constructively, to see whether it is characteristic of the country as a whole or specific to the particular circumstances in which he finds himself. And this was the area which I found quite annoying. For, instance, there's quite a lot of discussion about the paucity of what Collins can find in British shops compared to what's available in the U.S. But as he has no car he does his shopping in the small convenience stores that most British people only use to pick up the odd pint of milk or some chocolate on the way home from work, and that are used for a main shop only by those who can't afford the transport to go elsewhere. It would be like me moving to a small town in one of the less propsperous and cosmopolitan states of the US, limiting myself to shops within walking distance and then complaining that US shops didn't have a good a selection of French cheese as you can get in the UK. And I definitely didn't get this comment:
The kitchen, like a bizarrely high proportion of British kitchens that I have seen, is distinctively of 1950's vintage
The one thing that all sections of British society seems to agree on on moving house is the necessity of ripping out the kitchen as soon as possible, and replacing it with something new. I haven't seen a 1950's kitchen since about 1980. In fact, I think a genuine 50's kitchen would be a real selling point at the moment as it would be fashionably retro.
So while I might try something else on a different topic by this author, this one didn't work for me.
Quote: "To look for a specific book in Hay is a hopeless task; you can only find the books that are looking for you."
I thought this was a fabulous book. It is half a book about Paul's life and half a book about books, so the author references this or that interesting work he has stumbled across in the town of books (not that I need to be adding anything else to my to-read list at this point, but that's okay). The author is very entertaining, particularly because he is working on getting a book published and on the shelves (Barnvard's Folly) while writing this book and while surrounded by this graveyard for books. I am also entertained by the fact that each chapter is given a persona which is reflected in the title (such as "Chapter Fifteen Beholds the LORD").
This wonderful book about Paul Collin’s visit/move to a small town in England, Hay-on-Wye (population: 1500. Number of bookstores = 40) was so enjoyable to read. Not only does he describe and delight in the written world, the joy of reading, the texture and smell and heft of books, he gives the reader a colorful and meaningful look at this small town – including some very insightful contrasts to life in the United States.
As much of the story deals with a search for a house in Hay-on-Wye, he spends a good deal of time talking about architecture. The look and feel of the buildings and homes in small town England.
“…most building materials today will not age gracefully and were never meant to. They are only meant to be new. Perhaps the ancient brick walls in London weren’t built with much more foresight for their aesthetic future than any structure today; yet by their very nature they succeeded perfectly as ruins.”
The humor in this book is wonderful as well. As obvious as it is that Collins adores the British and many aspects of their way of life, he does poke gentle fun at them…or maybe I should say, with them. “No situation is so dire that it cannot be interrupted for tea. It is particularly important to the British when it is cold and damp outdoors, which is often, or when it is cold and damp indoors, which is always.”
And, “The fellow roots around and walks us to an oaken side door of the castle, producing from his pocket a skeleton key so weighty that he has clearly stolen it from Vincent Price.”
Collins gives the same treatment to American life, though possibly with just a bit more edge. (This made it all the more funny, as far as I was concerned.) “The fresh milk is gone too. It just seems so strange to be denied this; to an American, finding empty shelves in a market, to be told that you can’t buy something, is a little like waking up and being told that gravity has been switched off until further notice.”
And yet, the most wonderful aspect of this book, is his underlying love and fascination with books. He writes them, reads them, collects them, organizes them…is surrounded by these wonderful chronicles of human dreams, ideas, history, ideas of the future.
And here, too, his gentle humor shines through. Surrounded as he has been for his life by books, he knows them well enough to poke a bit of fun at them as well. “If a book cover has raised lettering, metallic lettering, or raised metallic lettering, then it is telling the reader: Hello, I am an easy-to-read work on espionage, romance, a celebrity, and/or murder. To readers who do not care for such things, this lettering tells them: Hello, I am crap. Such books can use only glossy paper for the jacket; Serious Books can use glossy finish as well, but it is only Serious Books that are allowed to use matte finish.”
(And one delightful coincidence between the last two books about books that I’ve read? Both mention the English cider “Scrumpy” – though with wildly differing opinions of the drink.)
I loved “Sixpence House” and dreaded finishing it – I can only hope my luck in books continues.
Collins was born in America, of British parents. He had frequently traveled to England and Wales and was familiar with Hay-on-Wye. Still, living in a place is different from visiting it, and Collins soon finds himself immersed in the world of books in ways he hadn’t anticipated. His memoir includes thumbnail sketches of some of the eccentric inhabitants – including Richard Booth, the self-proclaimed King of Hay, who bought the ancient castle ruins and turned it into the least-organized bookstore imaginable. (Although Collins does cite one of my own local favorites – Renaissance Books in Milwaukee WI – as “the closest thing the United States has to Booth’s.”)
There are passages that would merit 4 stars, but overall the book gets 3 stars from me. I enjoyed it, and some references to obscure, long-forgotten books make me want to hunt those volumes down and read them, but I wasn’t particularly moved by this book.
Paul, his wife, Jennifer and son Morgan leave San Francisco to live in Hay-on-Wye. This book is also the story of Mr. Collins going through the editing and publication process of his first book (“Banvard’s Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn’t Change the World"). So, each chapter is titled as such: “Chapter One Begins Both the Book and the Journey”, “Chapter Twelve is Crap that Nobody Reads Anymore”, and so on.
I like Mr. Collins’ humor, and how he shares with us the quirky characters that he encounters in Hay-on-Wye. Mr. Collins has a penchant for discussing obscure books he finds in the bookshops there, and also shares arcane information with us. He even becomes an employee when the “King of Hay” (owner of the local castle which houses the town’s largest bookstore) insists that he needs Mr. Collins to set up an American section of his bookstore.
Mr. Collins also enjoys comparing the difference between Britain and America — some of them may be sweeping generalities, however, such as this one:
“…I am in the next room taking a bath. This is because there is no point in taking showers in Britain. In the United States, water pressure presses; in Britain water pressure sucks. Every shower in Britain has some sorth of Heath Robinson mechanism — he is their equivalent of Rube Goldberg, only Robinson had to work with metric wrenches and 220 current….”
I really like the chapter about unspoken rules in publishing and how books are judged by the dust jacket style that they end up being encased in. Mr. Collins state that publishers feel that chance buyers don’t really look at the jacket copy or blurbs; but that they mainly make their decisions based on the cover design.
“There is an implicit code that customers rely on. If a book cover has raised lettering, metallic lettering, or raised metallic lettering, then it is telling the reader: Hello. I am an easy-to-read work on espionage, romance, a celebrity, and/or murder.”
Then there are the colors chosen for covers. Mr. Collins point out that “a work of Serious Literature will have muted, tea-stained colors. Black is okay here too, but only if used to accentuate cool blues and grays and greens”.
And this:
“Finally, on Serious Books and crap alike there will be a head shot of The Author sitting still while looking pensive or smiling faintly into the indeterminate distance — the one pose that has no existence in the author’s daily life. The size of the photo will be in inverse proportion to the quality of the book. If this photo is rendered in color, it is not a Serious Book. If there is no author photo at all, then it is a Serious Book indeed — perhaps even a textbook”.
Okay, one more. This is about books that end up in remainders:
“Among the many banes to a secondhand dealer’s existence, four unloved genres reign supreme: textbooks, theology, celebrity autobiography, and military history.”
This is a book that is mostly about books, but not just that. If you enjoy thoughts on the reading life, quirky real-life characters, and a taste of what it’s like to be an ex-pat, you will enjoy “Sixpence House”. It does not seem to be currently in print, which is a shame, but still seems to be found online at reasonable prices.
Paul Collins, his wife Jennifer, and toddler Morgan decide to relocate to England to experience an idyllic English countryside life. But, where to go? As they both have mobile careers (he - writer, she - artist) -- they pick Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh/English border, a town of
The story is about their experience of being ex-pats (one I know well), attempting to buy a house with the bizzare English estate system, and live and work in town without driving a car.
Sixpence House is a memoir written by a British-American who decides, along with his wife and young
Sixpence House is even better however because of Mr. Collins writing. He's funny and observant, and the little bits of literary trivia make this one of the most interesting books I've read in quite awhile! I think I've added about thirty new books now to my wishlist thanks to this book, including Mr. Collins first novel about people who disappeared into the footnotes of history.
This is a great little travel memoir. I've read it a few times, and yet I still love to come back to it. I absolutely recommend you give this book a try!!
At times he rants against all things American and perhaps with a view to equal time, he then turns and rants against all things British. This pointing of fingers at these two countries to me felt very mean-spirited. He writes of his love of this particular town, but I never felt that love in these pages.
Overall I found Sixpence House to be a little too disjointed and cerebral for me. I would love to visit Hay-on-Wye as I am sure it is a delightful place, especially for book lovers but I certainly don’t feel like I was able to get a clear picture from this book.
And of course, there is Hay-on-Wye, one of the places I visited while in Wales in March 2003. I adore this little book village, and all of Wales actually. I wish I had Brit heritage (as the author does) that would allow me a Brit passport and a chance to try my luck at living in Wales....
And the author's prediction that second books are always a disappointment is completely wrong. I didn't read his first, but for sure it can't be better than this one. But, maybe I am seeing through Wales coloured spectacles.
Collins often makes the British, and British life, seem out-of-touch with reality, but not in a way that puts me off. It does some, though.
This memoir is filled with charm that makes me ache with nostalgia to revisit Wales and get to Hay on
Chock full of literary references, including – to my delight – a scene from Jerome K. Jerome’s "Three Men in a Boat," a book I just finished. I love when literary serendipity happens!
Plenty of cogent comments on the state of nonliterate-ness in the USA as well as architectural observations on ruins (“natural” and “artificed”), public buildings, and private houses. Frequent bejeweled sentences like this one: "The street smells like it is paved with kidney stones," satisfy. What an elegant and original way to describe the pissoire scent of a derelict neighborhood. Constant reference to rare, out of print, and quirky books with little snippets from same included. All around armchair read. I’m envious of Mr. Collins.