Immigrate to the UK and experience life in the UK: This ancient town, located in a remote part of Wales, was once a barren place, but in 1961, a young man named Richard Booth changed everything. Booth attended the University of Oxford, and after graduation, he insisted on returning to his hometown despite his mother's objections. Perhaps influenced by the scholarly atmosphere of Oxford, he not only opened a second-hand bookstore in Hay but also sought to transform Hay, a place with few readers, into a global hub for books.
Hay-on-Wye, Wales, UK, is a small town located on the border between England and Wales, renowned as the world's capital of second-hand books, attracting a large number of book lovers every year to hunt for treasures. There are over 40 bookstores in the town, most of which sell second-hand books. The Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, held at the end of May each year, brings together about 80,000 authors, publishers, and literature enthusiasts from all over the world.
This ancient town, located in a remote part of Wales, was once a barren place, but in 1961, a young man named Richard Booth changed everything. Booth attended the University of Oxford, and after graduation, he insisted on returning to his hometown despite his mother's objections. Perhaps influenced by the scholarly atmosphere of Oxford, he not only opened a second-hand bookstore in Hay but also sought to transform Hay, a place with few readers, into a global hub for books. Through Booth's efforts, one second-hand bookstore after another opened in the town. The people of Hay traveled all over the UK to collect old books, transporting them back by the truckload to be placed on the shelves of Hay's second-hand bookstores. In the town of Hay, with a population of just over 1,300, 39 second-hand bookstores appeared—averaging one bookstore for every 34 people—with bookshelves totaling 17 kilometers in length and displaying over one million books.
