Last month we had a couple of nights stay in Britain’s ‘book-shop’ town, Hay-on-Wye.
Cosied on the border between England and Wales, Hay-on-Wye enjoys the charm that only a book-shopper’s heaven can afford. Sadly it is not immune to the onset of technology that brings us further away from a life of books and very quickly into a computerised world. Computers do not carry the same romantic notion as a book. They don’t have that distinctive smell that one can only locate between the pages and is not so pleasant to hold. Computers do, however, offer the unique opportunity to carry an entire library around on your person. I can see why this appeals to so many people.
There are some of us traditionalists remaining though and thank Goodness for the Hay-on-Wye haven that affords us the chance to embrace our addictions to full capacity without judgement from book-sellers or our fellow shoppers.
The Embrace Nature UK book collection is already vast but who can resist adding more books to the already full-capacity bookcases? Not us, that much is for sure!
As we have become older, our way of shopping for books has changed. Once upon a time we went for volume – as many books as possible for as little as possible. We would lean towards wildlife photography books with lots of pictures rather than scientific prose.
It might have been ten years since our last visit to Hay-on-Wye and this time we purchased six nature books. Three of these were very old and all of them informative.
Out-of-date scientific books must be approached with caution. So many new things are being discovered regularly that it is often not long before so-called facts as well as theories are shown to be inaccurate. This is not an issue for general interest but if factual information is needed, the only way forwards is corroboration. As a result these books can be enjoyed but the internet then comes into play so we can check our facts.
“Out-of-date scientific books must be approached with caution. So many new things are being discovered regularly that it is often not long before so-called facts as well as theories are shown to be inaccurate.”
My favourite room in Hay-on-Wye is the antiquarian book room in the Hay Cinema Bookshop. Introduced with a sign exclaiming “browsers welcome”, the room often anticipates only the most avid book-collectors to make a purchase as many of the books are extremely old, precious and whilst not exactly priceless, do come with a hefty price tag. Fortunately on this occasion I closely inspected the antiquarian room’s natural history books and found a couple of real gems.
If you have ever found yourself in the natural history section of a second-hand British bookshop, there is a very good chance that you have also been faced with several copies of Gilbert White’s “The Natural History of Selborne”. For years this seemed peculiar to me until I discovered that White’s manner of study and writing was a first for nature books and it is now renowned as one of the most influential natural history books ever.
When I learned this, I felt that I ought to own a copy. Well, in the Hay Cinema Bookshop, I located just the copy for me, so just five pounds later, I was the proud owner of this unique book.
Within our day of book shopping in Hay-on-Wye, we also found ourselves owners of Edward Step’s “Animal Life of the British Isles”, Richard Williamson’s “The Birdwatcher’s Year”, Bannerman and Lodge’s “The Birds of the British Isles; Volume VIII”, David Attenborough’s “The Life of Birds” and Grzimek’s “Encyclopedia of Ethology”.
Each of these books has something different to offer, which is why we are going to review all of them in up-and-coming blog entries.
Own your own copy of these books:
Gilbert White’s “The Natural History of Selborne”
Edward Step’s “Animal Life of the British Isles”
Richard Williamson’s “The Birdwatcher’s Year”
Bannerman and Lodge’s “The Birds of the British Isles; Volume VIII”
David Attenborough’s “The Life of Birds”
Grzimek’s “Encyclopedia of Ethology”
Pay a visit to Hay-on-Wye to explore the book shops: