Alex Johnson - Book Towns: Forty Five Paradises of the Printed Word

E-readers are not especially popular in book towns This one was shot with a 12-bore shotgun by Shaun Bythell, owner of The Wigtown Bookshop in Scotland.

Book towns also create more voices in support of the printed word, in a time of technological flux. While encouraging old-fashioned book buying, they have also helped centuries-old techniques such as papermaking to flourish, with positive knock-on effects on other creative industries locally, particularly for artists. At the same time, many of these sellers have also harnessed the power of the internet to run their businesses partly online (though several are resolutely opposed to this). Several have developed major literary festivals; Hay-on-Wyes is the most famous, but almost all book towns have their own. Vtikvere book village in Estonia may have no booksellers, but that does not stop it running an annual literary gathering each August, organised by writer Imbi Paju to celebrate literature and books.

Although they all operate independently, many are members of the International Organisation of Book Towns (even though some are more of a bookshop quarter than an actual township). The IOBT aims to raise interest in the book town ethos and runs a biennial festival in one of the member towns.

Captain, named after Captain Cat in Under Milk Wood, is a popular member of the bookselling team at The Wigtown Bookshop.

Inevitably not all book towns have stayed the course. Blaenavon in Wales and Atherstone in England had the misfortune to be very closely involved with an individual who is now serving a long prison sentence in America, and their book town projects subsequently fell by the wayside (although the enormous Astley Book Farm, a dozen miles from Atherstone, is keeping book buying alive in the area).

Others have started hopefully but never taken off. Writer Larry McMurtry hoped that his vast shop, Booked Up, would kickstart plans to turn Archer City in Texas into a book town. Sadly these plans have faded, and his own bookselling empire has shrunk. In Stillwater, Minnesota, the closure of St. Croix Antiquarian Books leaves only Loome Theological Booksellers and Valley Bookseller to keep the flame alive (see ). In Germany, Edenkoben is no longer a Bcherdorf, although there is still a rather nice book caf there, Bckerei & Bchercafe Dicker, if youre passing nearby.

Outdoor honesty bookshops like this one in Hay-on-Wye, Wales are common sights in book towns around the world.

But on the bright side, new locations are in the pipeline. Indian authorities have recently begun what they hope will become a book village network, and El Pedroso in Andalucia, Spain, is a prospective member of the IOBT. There is talk of a Borneo Book Village; an integrated book centre in Kuching in the near future. And some that looked like they were on their way out, such as Bowral in Australia, have happily returned with a new lease of life (see ).

At a time when libraries are becoming an endangered species and independent bookshops struggle against the rise of the e-book, book towns are beacons of hope in the fight to keep the traditional book alive. Please visit them and buy a book or two.

Note
The opening hours of the bookshops and other book businesses in book towns varies tremendously. They are usually open at weekends and during holidays, though even this varies, while others operate normal weekday business hours as well. Please do check times before visiting to avoid disappointment.