It probably shouldn’t delight me so much to learn that there’s an International Organisation of Book Towns, but here we are.

“A book town is simply a small town, usually rural and scenic, full of bookshops and book-related industries.”

I’m in need of a round the world trip now that I’ve read about book towns in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA and Wales.

For each of the book towns explored in this book, you’ll learn its history as well as some must browse bookstores and festivals, and websites so you can delve deeper. There’s plenty of information to entice you to spend your book budget in each town.

I’m always on the lookout for fun facts. Here are my favourites…

Hay-on-Wye, Wales was the first book town. Bookseller, Richard Booth, came up with the concept. He also crowned himself King of Hay in 1977 and declared his town an independent kingdom.

P.L. Travers was living in Bowral, Australia as a teenager when she created Mary Poppins. In 2011, 2,115 people created a very appropriate umbrella mosaic.

Fontenoy-La-Joûte, France has a signpost in the village centre that points to other book towns around the world. It also points you to some other locations, including “Atlantis, and Edgar Rice Burrough’s fictitious ‘hollow earth’, Pellucidar.”

You need to be between ten and fifteen years old to use Biblio Tøyen, a library in Oslo. It includes a Volvo truck with a kitchen in the back and reading sofa in the bonnet.

Livraria Bertrand in Lisbon, Portugal is the world’s oldest bookshop. It opened in 1732.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Frances Lincoln, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Book Towns is a beautiful book that any bibliophile with wanderlust with love.

Inspired by Hay on the Wye, many more towns have begun to build an identity around books. Alex Johnson takes his readers from town to town and as a book-lover I felt like packing my bags straightaway. While France features heavily I was happy to see how widely Alex Johnson had cast his net to find these Book Towns.

As other reviewers have also pointed out, sadly many of these Book Towns are becoming smaller and smaller and I fear some of them will have been hit even harder by COVID. So while Book Towns may no longer be entirely accurate, it does remain as a beautiful memory of towns that loved books.

This was such a fun read. I am a huge reader and so I loved hearing about these towns that are also into literature. It makes me want to add these to my bucket list of places to go and visit. I definitely recommend this for people who are into books.

I'm a sucker for this kind of book myself, but whilst I know some customers would but this, it's definitely not one for everyone.

What a lovely book! Quarto has sneaked its way into being my favorite publishing company with this one. I loved the illustrations and the information was just almost enough to satisfy this vicarious armchair traveller. This is not the author's fault however, as the only way to get true satisfaction is to visit the towns themselves. I ordered a copy of the book and it is featured prominently when you walk into my house.

not my cup of tea. would try other selections by this author, however. .................. .................. .......
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The so-called “Book Towns” of the world are dedicated havens of literature, and the ultimate dream of book lovers everywhere. Book Towns takes readers on a richly illustrated tour of the 40 semi-officially recognized literary towns around the world and outlines the history and development of each community, and offers practical travel advice.

I love this so much.

This book is the bucket list for all readers and lovers of books! So many places I did not know about and will plan to visit in the near future!

This book combines two of my favorite things, Book stores and travel. The book travels around the world visiting book towns, taking you far beyond Hay On Wye. The author gives a history of the town, reviews the stores located there and includes any specialties. Short bios of some of the book sellers is also included. The one thing that made me sad reading this book is the realization that Europe loves its book towns more than the US. Sadly the US book towns are struggling. The text is accompanied by wonderful photographs. This book will appeal to book lovers and travelers and will make a great gift. Enjoy this literary arm chair travel and try and get out and visit your own local bookseller.

A lovely book filled to the brim with the history of some very beautiful bookish towns. All over the world people celebrate literature, but some towns do it better than others. Filled with stunning photos, interesting details, and enough book shots to make you squeal in delight, this is an absolute must for any travelling bibliophile you know! And perfect for a coffee table book for those of us who can't get out to travelling right away.

So, long story short, I have just added 45 more locations to my never-ending Bucket List. Honestly though, how could you not want to visit these places!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I truly appreciate it!

Its like a magazine atlas on book towns not really recommendable for recreational read but for a fun page turner for fulfilling curiosities of adventure and beauty.

As a book nerd and traveler, I loved this book. It was so fantastic to read about awesome touristy locales associated with literary works!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book!

First of all, I LOVE the idea behind this book. LOVE IT. I have visited Hay-on-Wye before, but I never realized how that town had sparked a movement. It was fascinating to read about the different places around the world that have turned themselves into book tourism, essentially. And it definitely added new locations to my bucket list.

The photography in the book was great, too, with lots of illustrative pictures to accompany the text. Whenever I found myself thinking, "I'd like to see what that looks like!" there would be a picture of that very thing.

My only small small critique is the writing itself. I think if the text had been more along the lines of a Rick Steves travel book or a similar advanced travel writer, the atmosphere of the towns would have been caught with more magic. Sometimes the descriptions felt stale or repetitive, which ultimately kept this in the category of "interesting non-fiction" instead of "insta-love" for me.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the book and have already talked it up with several book-loving friends. It would make a great gift for book lovers of all stripes.

This was a great book and made me want to go to most of these places. So many in other countries, especially France. Towns that are all about the books, even having book festivals (which I have never been to but want to so badly) and their bookstores. I loved reading about these things. And the pictures were gorgeous and so inviting! I would take a vacation just to go to these towns! It is a fun book about towns about books. If you enjoy this, then I highly recommend this book for you. It is great!

Gorgeously photographed curation of towns that are dedicated, in whole or in part, to the art, lifestyle, appreciation, and reading of books. I found myself smiling from beginning to end and will likely use this as a guiding star for future vacations and ultimate retirement plans. Truly lovely,

Book Towns by Alex Johnson details 40+ book loving towns from the world over. Full of gorgeous photos, each town entry provides history, as well as practical advice for those wishing to visit the locales. From the UK and Norway, to Japan and India, thirty countries are covered, each known for their love of literature.

I loved flipping through, looking at the pictures, and reading the history of each town. I'm not a huge travel fan, but now I'd really like to visit some of these lovely cities. This is the perfect coffee table book, especially for the travel loving bookworm!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I fell in love with book towns when I toured Great Britain two years ago and spent time in Haye-on-Wye and Wigtown so naturally, I was really interested when I got the chance to read this book.
This book showcases all of the known and unknown or less known book towns and their history. Nice photos and, lots of information for everyone who loves books and book shops!

Is your town a book town? Does your city read a lot? In Book Towns we take a trip to small towns and places all around the world that have become places who love books and love to read. Whether they are having festivals, or celebrating what books have down to their towns in their own unique ways; Book Towns will leave you wanting to take a literary trip.

This book goes through, in photos and words, all the different book towns in the world. It is so enchanting! It's interesting to see how different they look from one country to another, but also interesting to hear how they started and the benefits they have added to their wee towns.

This book is now responsible for creating a whole new travel bucket list for me!

If you truly love books you will not be able to fault this book.
I know this is a bold statement and I have no wish to court controversy or cause offence. My point is this. Here is a book that that encourages the promotion of all things booky and sees that focus through the dedicated individuals who have tirelessly worked to regenerate their towns and communities by encouraging the promotion of books.
In the process these communities have reached out through selling books, attracting other arts and crafts, the skills around these things like papermaking, printing and bookbinding. But through shops and associated commissioning of awards, literatary events and book fairs visitors have come and towns and districts have flourished again, many maintaining this impetus although bookshops have closed along the way. Books have been instrumental in enriching the local culture. Wow!
The ethos of a book town appears to be the physical item, the hardback or printed paperback. The delight of turning pages, the feel and smell.
In alphabetical order these towns have a couple of pages dedicated to them and their origins and successes. Many are variations on each other, most are driven by one or two persons' vision some inspired by other more famous locations like Hay on Wye (they get 3 pages).
Within this potted history is a range of common details, the location, impact, resources and buildings involved. In some cases nearly every available space is used, honest boxes are available for purchases and pictures reflect the sense of place. Crucially a number of links and websites are listed.
Reading this book was like finding out that a new continent had been discovered. A lost tribe had walked out of the highlands of a previously remote area on a pacific island or Brexit vote never happened.
My world became a new vibrant place; I had reasons to travel and visit new places and in countries as close as France, book towns were a fact. I pinched myself, Father Christmas was a great guy and the Tooth Fairy a generous dental hygienist and England were going to win the World Cup.
So book towns exist they were as different as they were random but like CB radio enthusiasts before, the communication was happening even if I had never heard it. A new reality of communities coalescing around and promoting the printed word existed in greater numbers than some endangered species.

I love this book, it told me that chocolate would continue to be made and enjoyed.
Significantly, the types of confectionary was increasing and where it was available widening.

I love books; book shelves crammed with books. My kindle is filled with access to more books than I could possibly read; but to arrive someplace soon and pick up a well loved book and hold it in my hands is a pleasure that awaits me and seemingly already fills increasing numbers of people with a similar joy.

Book Towns - I love this book.