Rating: 
Summary: Books, books and more books
Review: "Sixpence House" is the name of an old house that was a pub once upon a time. It is some hundreds of years old and stands lopsidedly in the middle of the picturesque old village of Hay-on-Wye on the border between England and Wales . The Wye valley winds green and lush along foot of the brown hills known - with Welsh poetic license - as the Black Mountains. It sounded like an ideal place for a young writer and his artist wife and toddler son to settle down. And it almost was.Several years ago, Paul Collins was living in San Francisco with a first book ready for publication and a certainty that he and his family needed to move somewhere cheaper and safer. Hay, which he had visited before, sounded ideal. As it famously advertises, it has 40 bookstores serving its 1500 residents, and it considers itself the world's antiquarian book centre. The Hay Festival in early summer attracts visitors from every English-speaking country. With more modesty than accuracy, Collins claims that he was offered a job sorting out the mounds of books in the American literature section of a rambling bookstore in Wye based purely on his American accent. But Collins obviously knows his books. He has filled "Sixpence House" with snippets from obscure volumes that are by turns bizarre and hilarious. He has also developed a Theory of Dust Jackets: "There is an implicit code that customers rely on. If a book cover has raised lettering, metallic lettering, or raised metallic lettering, then it is telling the reader: 'Hello. I am an easy-to-read work on espionage, romance, a celebrity, and/or murder.' To readers who do not care for such things, this lettering tells them: 'Hello. I am crap.' Such books can use only glossy paper for the jacket; Serious Books can use glossy finish as well, but it is only Serious Books that are allowed to use matte finish. Diminutively sized paperbacks, like serial romances or westerns or dieting or astrology guides, are aimed at the uneducated. But diminutively sized hardcover books are aimed at the educated - except those that are very diminutive, which are religious books aimed at the uneducated - and unless they are in a highly rectangular format, in which case they are point-of-purchase books aimed at the somewhat-but-not-entirely educated....." This book, by the way, has a "matte" cover in a "muted, tea-stained" colour. That means that it is Serious Literature. Oh, surely not that serious, Mr Collins. The author's theory of house prices was less successful. Assuming that anywhere as far from paid employment as Hay was bound to be a cheap place to live, he went in search of a quaint old home with stone walls, massive beams and a huge garden for his son to play in. This would have been fair enough when Britain's economy really was "sad", but it has developed something of a smirk in recent years. All those affluent townies buying second homes for the weekend have sent house prices in rural England and Wales rocketing out of reach of young families in the countryside. The only houses that are "quaint", but still within the price range of an aspiring writer, come encumbered with entailed land or six inches of water in the basement. Successful writers, as Collins deserves to be based on this book, may find a wider choice.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting and fun
Review: a quick read, the book follows the author on a quest to move to the uk and buy a house, loosly told through essays relating to the house hunting experience. the best thing about the book is all the cool tidbits of info, like exactly how to judge a book by it's cover, or the stuff used in book bindings is the same stuff used in fast food milkshakes. some interesting turns of phrase show up, all quoted from obscure books i never would have known about. he paints a descriptive picture on life in the uk, how it differs from the us, and although he seems biased for the uk in some spots, he suddenly turns around and shows favor to the u.s. i also enjoyed the fact that he writes intelligently, and has faith in his readers enough to not dumb down or make things obvious (which, as it turns out, he mentions in one chapter). i liked the book, and i got a kick out of the rather witty chapter titles. a good tale overall.
Rating:
Summary: Sixpence House-Lost in a Town of Books
Review: After reading "Sixpence House"by Paul Collins,I have made plans to visit Hay-on-Wye.I want to see Booth's Castle and maybe have a ham sandwich with him in his kitchen at the Castle.I want to see the water in the basement of Sixpence House and the "Beverly Hills"area of Hay.I want to go to Pemberton's Book shop and meet Diana and know that she is ok after her mandatory visit to Cardiff.I want to spend much time in Booth's Bookstore and look for a copy of "Hunting Indians in a Taxicab" and a copy of "I was Hitler's Maid".After reading "Sixpence House"by Paul Collins,you will want to do these things also.
Rating:
Summary: "This town's reason to live is books"
Review: Along the Welsh border is the small village of Hye-on-Wye that has attracted avid readers and dedicated book collectors from around the world. Why? There are forty booksellers but only 1500 residents. This fact alone is surprising considering the fact that readership in general is falling and booksellers are consolidating or shutting down at an alarming rate. In SIXPENCE HOUSE writer Paul Collins and his family decide to sell their San Francisco home and relocate to Hye-on-Wye to live in their ideal setting dominated by books. What follows is an often-humorous tale of their transatlantic move and acclimation to British life. Upon arriving their first obstacle is to buy a house that turns out to be an undaunted task; the types of houses they are interested in are either out of their price range or require significant repairs. One of the most interesting aspects of SIXPENCE HOUSE deals specifically with the destiny of old forgotten books of yesteryear. A tremendous amount of books have been published since the invention of the printing press; yet one ponders the riddle of where all of these books have gone. An indication of the answer lies within this book as Collins details how bulk containers filled with books are shipped from America for resale in Hye-on-Wye on a continuous basis. Book buyers have combed the American countryside buying the libraries of estates and libraries which nobody else had any interest; the dusty books often end up in piles in the bookstores of Hye-on-Wye waiting to be searched by eager bibliophiles like Paul Collins. SIXPENCE HOUSE is a decent read, though Collins' tangents of juxtaposing life in America versus Britain can be taxing and tiring after some time. I would have enjoyed more focus on the books instead of his writing career or taking care of his child. In recent years there has been a proliferation of books about books, and this is another one to add to the growing stack. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Books, Wit and Pleasure
Review: By Bill Marsano. This literate and literary book is an eccentric pleasure filled with sly fun and effortless surprise. Paul Collins was born in Pennsylvania to British immigrants, and the greatest of his inheritances is rootlessness: He has changed addresses as often as underwear and only now that he and his wife, Jennifer, have an infant son does he think to settle permanently. Collins is a writer and also a lover of books. For him abandoning San Francisco is an easy choice because it's too expensive and because his neighbors, in their painstakingly restored Victorian houses, apparently never read. "All those beautiful built-in bookshelves?" Collins says. "They don't hold any books." Indeed his real-estate agent tells him "You have too many books in here. Home buyers don't like books . . . . Really. You should hide them." So off they go to Wales, to the famous "book town" of Hay-on-Wye, to buy a house. Collins and wife investigate numerous houses in numerous neighborhoods (my favorite is Cusop Dingle), learn some scary things about British real-estate practices, and commence knitting themselves into the fabric of the community. Collins threads together many incidents and a few adventures; truth to tell, some are but flimsily connected to his narrative. On the other hand, he tells them so well, in such witty and inventive prose, that it hardly matters. It is a delight to hear Collins' explain that you CAN tell a book by its cover; his discussions of some of the wondrously strange forgotten books he's collected ("Hunting Indians in a Taxicab" is one of the best titles; I wonder how he missed "By Horse and Sledge to Outcast Siberian Lepers"?); and listen in on his new career as the "American expert" for Richard Booth, the reelingly eccentric anarchist-genius who made sleepy Hay a used-book capital (and also declared himself king of a secessionist republic and began issuing passports). I say "hear" because you don't merely read this book: You hear it; it's as if Collins is talking to you directly, because there is that rare quality called "voice" in his writing. If you love real writing or know someone who does, buy this book right away.--Bill Marsano is a professional writer and editor.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful trip
Review: For those that want to read a wonderful story by a very talented writer, they will find it here along with some original, thoughtful, and witty obsevations about life and books. Every page was a pleasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment
Review: From the editorial reviews, I expected to love this book. As a total book lover, I found Sixpence House to be depressing. The authors attitute towards books in general, as well as his own, are a downer and the descriptions of Hay and it's surrounds were totally uninspiring. I found completing the book a chore.
Rating:
Summary: A book written just for me!
Review: Have you ever read a book and thought, "How could this book ever have been published? It was written for an audience of one--me!" I have the advantage of having been to Hay-on-Wye and of having been an English teacher for five years and a bookseller for 25!
I loved every aspect of this book including the quotes from old tomes to the cutesy stories of toddler Morgan. After all, I have a charming two-year-old grandson.
I highly recommend this book to...ME!
Rating:
Summary: A Booklovers Delight
Review: Hay-on-Wye, Wales is the destination of Paul and Jennifer Collins and their baby son, Morgan. A move from San Francisco to this small town of 1500 is a BIG move. Why would a young family pack up their belongings and move on? For the love of books!
At some point a couple of years previous, Paul and Jennifer had stopped off in Hay-on-Wye and fell in love. Hay-on-Wye is a mecca for booklovers, and antiquarian books in particular. Hay-on-Wye is "The Town of Books". It has 1500 townspeople, five churches, four grocers, two newsagents one post office and forty bookstores. Antiquarian books in antiquarian buildings. Very few buildings in Hay are under one hundred years old. Paul is a writer and life in San Francisco was becoming too expensive. The plan would be to find a house, fix it up and live there forever. Paul could write and dream. Jennifer could paint and Morgan would grow up. Paul and his wife and babe live in a hotel while they are looking for a house. They meet with an agent who really works for the sellers- no one works for buyers in Wales. They look at very old houses, with very small rooms and lots of work to be done. They find one that they love, but... the sellers want too much money. They find another house but the sellers want to be paid again for the land if they sell the house and it's acres... In the meantime, Paul starts working at Booths, one of the 40 bookstores and the largest. He is asked to organize the American section. He reports to work and finds books and books and books and more books stored here and there. Many of the books he finds have stories of their own and Paul is quick to tell them. Who would have thought I might be interested in reading "The Gentle Art of Faking" by Riccardo Nibili? This is a book for those of us who love books. Paul Collins tells us a story about a town and the people who live there and love their books. He writes about publishing, and eccentrics. He tells us his tales of the family's explorations and travels. He gives us his personal memoir and tells a tale of a family who follows their dream...and then he tells
us of the time he lost his American passport. This is a book not to be missed. A book lover's delight. prisrob
Rating:
Summary: Delightfully bookish.
Review: Here's a choice excerpt satirizing the corporate thinking that dominates the publishing industry today (edited to remove one rather lame but possibly objectionable four-letter word): "There is an implicit code that customers rely on. If a book cover has raised lettering, metallic lettering, or raised metallic lettering, then it is telling the reader: Hello, I am an easy-to-read work on espionage, romance, a celebrity, and/or murder. To readers who do not care for such things, this lettering tells them: Hello. I am garbage. Such books can use only glossy paper for the jacket; Serious Books can use glossy finish as well, but it is only Serious Books that are allowed to use matte finish.' "Diminutively sized paperbacks, like serial romances or westerns or dieting and astrology guides, are aimed at the uneducated. But diminutively sized hardcover books are aimed at the educated -- excepting those that are very diminutive, which are relgious books aimed at the uneducated -- and unless they are in a highly rectangular format, in which they are point-of-purchse books aimed at the somewhat-but-not-entirely educated. However, vertically rectangular diminutive softcover books, which tend to be pocket travel guides, are aimed at the educated. But horizontally rectangular diminutive softcover books -- a genre pioneered by Garfield Gains Weight -- are not.' "Then there are the colors. Bright colors, and shiny colors, are necessary for the aforementioned books with raised lettering. Black will work too, but only if used to set off the bright and shiny colors. Because, remember, with the customary base in mind, the book will need to be a bright and shiny object. Conversely, a work of Serious Literature will have muted, tea-stained colors. Black is okay here too, but only if used to accentuate cool blues and grays and greens.' "Woe and alas to any who transgress these laws. A number of reviewers railed against The Bridges of Madison Country, becuase it used the diminutive hardcover size and muted color scheme of, say, an Annie Dillard book -- thus cruelly tricking readers of Serious Literature into buying junk. Not to be outdone, the Harvard University Press issued Walter Benjamin's opus The Arcades Project with gigantic raised metallic lettering. One can only imagine the disgust of blowhard fifthysomethings in bomber jackets as they slowly realized that the Project they were reading about was a cultural analysis of the 19th century Parisian life -- and not, say a tale involving renegade Russian scientists and a mad general aboard a nuclear submarine.' "Finally, on Serious Books and junk alike there will be a head-shot photo of The Author sitting still while looking pensive or smiling faintly into the indeterminate distance -- the one pose that has no existence in the author's actual daily life. The size of this photo will be in inverse proportion to the quality of the book. If this photo is rendered in color, it is not a Serious Book. If there is no author photo at all, then it is a Serious Book indeed -- perhaps even a textbook. If a color photo of the author occupies the entire front cover, the book is unequivocable junk."
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