Book town

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title: "Book town" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["book-towns", "types-of-towns", "bookstores", "bookselling", "literary-festivals"] description: "Town or village with many used book or antiquarian bookstores" topic_path: "general/book-towns" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_town" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Town or village with many used book or antiquarian bookstores ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Hay-on-Wye,_taken_from_the_castle.jpg" caption="[[Hay Castle]] bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, with other bookshops on the road behind."] ::

A book town is a town or village with many used book or antiquarian bookstores. These stores, as well as literary festivals, attract bibliophile tourists. Some book towns are members of the International Organisation of Book Towns.

List of book towns

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Hobartnymainstreet.jpg" caption="Bookshops seen along Main Street in [[Hobart, NY"] ::

Book towns with known dates of operation

• Bellprat, Spain (2008)
• Bhilar, India (2017)
• Blaenavon, Wales (2003–2006)
• Borrby, Sweden (2011)
• Brownville, Nebraska, US (2004)
• Clunes, Victoria, Australia (2007)
• Dalmellington, Scotland (1997–2005)
• Esquelbecq, France (2010)
• Featherston, New Zealand (2015)
• Hay-on-Wye, Wales (1962)
• Hobart, New York, US (2005)
• Jimbōchō Book Town, Japan (1868)
• La Pobla de Segur, Spain (2018)
• Langkawi International Book Village, Malaysia (1997, unknown date of closure)
• Mellösa, Sweden (2001)
• Montmorillon, France (2000)
• Montolieu, France (1991)
• Paju Book City, South Korea (1989)
• Redu, Belgium (1984)
• Sedbergh, England (2003)
• Torup, Denmark (2006)
• Urueña, Spain (2007)

Book towns with unknown dates of operation

• Timbuktu, Mali

References

References

1. "International Organisation of Book Towns".
2. "Bellprat Vila del Llibre". www.viladelllibre.cat.
3. Dey, Panchali. "Bhilar, India's first 'book village', welcomes you to test your reading skills". The Times of India.
4. (28 June 2003). "Books open new chapter for Plywood City". [[The Guardian]].
5. Goodenough, Mike. (17 March 2006). "Blaenafon – The Booktown Experiment Fails". TheBookGuide.
6. "Borrby Bokby – Sveriges första bokby".
7. "Welcome to Brownville Nebraska – Events, News and Info".
8. (30 April 2014). "Clunes turns a page and celebrates its Booktown Festival". [[Weekly Times]].
9. Goodenough, Mike. (11 April 2005). "Dalmellington Book Town – on the road to nowhere". TheBookGuide.
10. "Esquelbook le site d'Esquelbecq, Village du Livre".
11. "Booktown {{!}} Featherston, New Zealand".
12. (22 August 2019). "Richard Booth obituary". [[The Guardian]].
13. Dominic Rech. (31 August 2019). "The 'mini Trump' who built a kingdom out of books".
14. "For Those Who Love Books – Home". Hobartbookvillage.com.
15. "Book town Festival".
16. "Langkawi International Book Village".
17. (9 February 2012). "The Book Town in Mellösa".
18. Alex Johnson. (5 April 2018). "Book Towns". Frances Lincoln (White Lion 2).
19. "Our Book Town Story".
20. "Velkommen til Torup Bogby".
21. "Turismo Provincia de Valladolid". Diputaciondevalladolid.es.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::