Synopses & Reviews
Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside-to move, in fact, to the village of Hay-on-Wye, the "Town of Books" that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants-and forty bookstores. Taking readers into a secluded sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the creation of the author's own first book,
Sixpence House becomes a heartfelt and often hilarious meditation on what books mean to us.
Review
"Entertaining....Collins has an engaging manner, and the depiction of his adopted Welsh town is informative and amusing....A treat for the bibliophile." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Collins can be quite funny, and he pads his sophomore effort with obscure but amusing trivia...but it's hard to imagine anyone beyond bibliophiles and fellow Hay-lovers finding enough here to hold their attention." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Reading of [Collins's] sojourn in Hay is pleasantly akin to browsing one of its bookstores because Collins...delivers a funny excerpt from a forgotten old volume...for every occasion." Entertainment Weekly
Review
"The real, engaging heart of the tale is Collins' love of books and other people who love them....Collins muses on antiquarian books the way the rest of us remember lost loves." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Funny, informative, somewhat chaotic and full of interesting references...there are numerous meanders into peripheral subjects, seen through the astute eyes of an Anglophile American." The Washington Post
Synopsis
Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside to move, in fact, to the village of Hay-on-Wye, the "Town of Books" that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants and forty bookstores. Taking readers into a secluded sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the creation of the author's own first book, Sixpence House becomes a heartfelt and often hilarious meditation on what books mean to us.
Synopsis
The national bestseller, now in paperback.
About the Author
Paul Collins is the author of
Banvard's Folly: Thirteen People Who Didn't Change the World, and
Not Even Wrong. He edits the Collins Library for McSweeney's Books, and his work has appeared in
New Scientist, Business 2.0, and
Tin House.