I noticed that Eigon comes from Hay-on-Wye, byline - town of books. My fetish for books on self reliance/sustainability/self sufficiency is well documented. Is there a specialist bookshop of this type in that mythical town of books?
I used to live there - it's a great place to go if you are a book lover!! I don't recall there being one specifically aimed at self sufficiency though... but that would be a great idea Wombat. Why didn't you suggest that when I still lived there LOL....
I'm afraid there's no specialist on self-sufficiency (out of a total of 36 bookshops), but there is a Natural History bookshop, Chris Arden's, which has all sorts of gardening books, and there are sections on self-sufficiency in the bigger bookshops, so a little browsing could turn up what you want.
Richard Booth's shop The Limited (which he recently sold - he now just owns the Castle) used to have a large section - building windmills, that sort of thing - but I haven't got round to going in since it changed hands, so I don't know what the new owners have kept.
I have to say it was an area of the shop which was not well used - some of the books hung around there for years before they sold.
"The best way to get real enjoyment out of the garden isto put on a wide straw hat, hold a little trowel in one hand and a cool drink in the other, and tell the man where to dig."
Charles Barr
I noticed that Eigon comes from Hay-on-Wye, byline - town of books. My fetish for books on self reliance/sustainability/self sufficiency is well documented. Is there a specialist bookshop of this type in that mythical town of books?
Any help would be appreciated
Nev
There is one that specialises in gardening and related subjects - DH won't let me in there unaccompanied and takes all my bank and credit cards off me first!
Thanks, Karen D for putting the links up - I'm not very good at that sort of technical stuff!
Yes, we are trying to go Plastic Bag Free - at the moment we're at the stage of using up all the bags we have in stock, and the Co-op donated cotton bags that were delivered to every house in Hay. They come from a project in Pondicherry in India, so the bags are also benefiting a poor community there. We also have other cotton bags, and jute bags, on sale.
I'm also on the Fairtrade committee - we're about to apply for official Fairtrade Town status, and six out of seven of the local primary schools already have Fairtrade status.
We're also a Gold Star Community, along with half a dozen other Welsh towns that are twinned with places in Africa. We twinned with Timbuktu last year, and a delegation came over for the official ceremony. Last month a group from Hay went to Timbuktu to find out how the two communities can help each other. The link between us is books - Timbuktu has thousands of medieval manuscripts.
"The best way to get real enjoyment out of the garden isto put on a wide straw hat, hold a little trowel in one hand and a cool drink in the other, and tell the man where to dig."
Charles Barr
Green Rosie - oh yeah, the only thing I really miss about the UK is charity shops, browsing through for materials for projects, books on any subject, knitting supplies, ohhhhhhhhh - all that lovely lovely lovely stuff left behind.
And Karen_D - lived in Stourbridge, well, Wollaston actually but loved the Oxfam book shop in the High Street.
And many happy Saturdays spent browsing Hay on Wye, trying to fit the pushchair through the doors and up the narrow alleyways, and then later trying to keep toddler hands off the shelves.
theabsinthefairy wrote:Green Rosie - oh yeah, the only thing I really miss about the UK is charity shops, browsing through for materials for projects, books on any subject, knitting supplies, ohhhhhhhhh - all that lovely lovely lovely stuff left behind.
I'm heading back to England for a week or so in June - and one of the things I am planning is how many charity shops I can visit
Went to Hay on Wye for honeymoon (after visiting the Botanic Gardens in Wales the day before). Bought books! Bought a cactus one (although it's in German) for 50p - in another shop, the same book albeit in better condition but not perfect had an asking price of £50!
