Book town - Definition and Overview

A book town is a small village with a large number of second-hand or antiquarian book shops. These villages attract bibliophiliac tourists to the book shops, and with literary festivals.

The first book town was Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Its example was followed by numerous villages, first in Europe, and then across the world.

Some of the book towns are organised in the International Organisation of Book Towns.

List of book towns

This is a (possibly incomplete) list of towns calling themselves a book town, with their date of establishment:

• Hay-on-Wye, Wales (1961)
• Redu, Belgium (1984)
• Becherel, France (1988)
• Montolieu, France (1989)
• Bredevoort, Netherlands (1993)
• Stillwater, Minnesota, (1993)
• St. Pierre de Clages, Switzerland (1993)
• Fontenoy-la-Joute, France (1993)
• Fjærland, Norway (1995)
• Wigtown, Scotland (1997)
• Waldstadt Wunsdorf, Germany (1997)
• Damme, Belgium (1997)
• Dalmellington, Scotland (1997)
• Sysmä, Finland (4th July 1997)
• Muehlbeck/Friedersdorf, Germany (1997)
• Kampung Buku Langkawi, Malaysia (1997)
• Tvedestrand, Norway (2003)
• Sidney, British Columbia
• Gold Cities BookTown, Grass Valley, Nevada City, California

External links

International Organisation of Book Towns (http://www.booktown.net/)