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The Principality is very lightly sprinkled with secondhand bookshops, with no real concentrations outside of Cardiff and, of course, Hay-on-Wye. The further west you go, the the thinner they get but bargains have been known.
Mid Wales (Ceredigion, Gwynedd and Powys)
Booth Books in Lion Street, Hay is now under new management and has been completely refurbished. Both the Addyman shops can be rewarding and Boz Books is good for Dickens and leather. Hay Cinema Bookshop has a stock of 200,000 volumes on all subjects - from Art to Zoology - and at prices from 50 pence to thousands of pounds. Coch-y-Bonddu Books in Machynlleth is a must for all things to do with the countryside and natural history, and the other shop in town is worth a look. Andrew Morton in Brecon is large but rather low-key these days, and Books, Maps and Prints is now mostly Welsh interest. North Wales (Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd and Wrexham)
Colwyn Bay with three shops is worth visiting, particularly for the Bay Bookshop. Just up the road at Llandudno Junction, the recently opened Junction Bookshop has received good reviews, and in Llandudno itself, Madoc Books has a good selection of antiquarian stock. Elsewhere, the shops are few and far-between. South Wales (Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Newport and Monmouthshire)
Stella Books in Tintern is a must, particularly if children's books are your thing, and with Broadleaf Books and regular bookstalls in the market, Abergavenny is worth stopping in. In Cardiff, Troutmark Books are good for SF and pulp fiction, whilst Capital Bookshop has received mixed reviews, but might be worth a look.
The Blaenafon Booktown experiment finally collapsed in 2006 after struggling for three brief years. It's a sad story of people ignoring the old adage: "If it sounds two good to be true, it probably is" ... more
West Wales (Pembrokeshire, Carmarthanshire and Swansea)
Carmarthenshire Rare Books in Carmarthen sometimes has treasures, but apart from Pendleburys Bookshop in Llanwrda, and Ystwyth Books in Aberystwyth, it's difficult to think of anywhere else nowadays to recommend to serious book hunters. |